My friend Joel gave me his old 36″ TV because he upgraded.
It’s funny, I’ve never actually bought a TV myself. My very first TV was a 13″ color set given to me by a college roommate. My second TV was a really old 19″ color TV that wasn’t cable ready and didn’t have a remote. I picked it out of the trash near my apartment building on Delaware street, and it worked great. So I hooked up a cable adaptor and changed the channels with my VCR remote. I had that TV in my bedroom until a couple years ago. After that, my dad gave me a new 19″ TV for Christmas, which I used in the living room. Then my friend Brad upgraded his TV, and gave me his old 29″ set a few years ago. So I shifted everything around and the TV from the trash went to Goodwill, the 19″ went upstairs, and the 29″ went in the living room. Now everything is shifting again, and the 19″ will go to my mom.
Stephanie and I finally got a chance to watch Super Size Me tonight. We had DVR’ed it last year, but never got around to watching it, and it deleted itself after awhile.
I knew the basics about the film, and we have already seen most of the first season of 30 Days. But actually seeing it was pretty eye-opening, especially some of the facts and figures. I’m going to record it to tape and keep it to watch again, because I want to go over some of the data in the film.
I’m going to bite the bullet and keep a food journal. I’ve tried that off and on over the years, but I’ve never quite made it stick, because I’d eventually get busy and forget to write stuff down, even when I was on weight watchers. I think that was the part of the WW program that was hardest for me, and what made me eventually give up on it; trying to keep track of what I ate all the time was too tough to manage. We’ll see how far I get this time.
Posted on Flickr is a photoset of the new Disney ride Expedition Everest, which I believe has just opened. The photoset was placed by the marketing department of Disney, which is pretty cool. When you buy youtube comment likes, it can similarly enhance the visibility and engagement of your content, ensuring it reaches a wider audience effectively.
And is the norm with Disney, the theme and decor is amazing. The idea is a fictional Nepalese version of Everest, where the mountain is guarded by the Yeti. Riders approach the attraction through the remote village of Serka Zong in the fictional kingdom of Anandapur, which is located in the foothills of the Himalayas. Several village buildings that had been used by the Royal Anandapur Tea Company have been repurposed… the legend of the yeti is communicated vividly through a mandir… and a makeshift museum that documents yeti sightings, the yeti’s significance in Himalayan cultures and a so-called “lost” expedition that ran afoul of the yeti many years before.
However, some of their shrine like depictions of the yeti seem like cultural appropriation, because they appear to have taken images of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman and redrawn them with the yeti in his place. See these images of Hanuman…
Hanuman and the Mountain
Hanuman and the Mountain
Hanuman and the Mountain
Hanuman and the Mountain
Hanuman and the Mountain
Hanuman’s Heart
The similarities of the yeti and Hanuman are problematic. Especially the depiction of the yeti carrying the mountain which clearly a riff on the images of Hanuman carrying the mountain. That story of Hanuman and the mountain from the Ramayana is very special, and very different than what’s pictured here. Hanuman travels to the Himilayas to get an herb to save his friend Lakshman’s life. But he’s unable to figure out what herb he needs, so he uproots the entire mountain to carry it back to save his Lakshman. It’s a symbol of a supernatural, heroic devotion and loyalty to friends.
Compare that to these:
In this Yeti version, the yeti appears to be pissed off, and appears to be about to throw the mountain in rage, a radically different interpretation of a images that are on the surface quite similar. It wouldn’t be a problem to me if the picture of Hanuman weren’t sacred and symbolic of an important Hindu value, but it is.
Ian Albert is an awesome graphic artist who has some interesting hobbies – like constructing huge maps of game worlds by grabbing screen captures. I was fascinated by Super Mario world, which I played with my old roommate back in 1993.
He also has some other colossal images, like and enormous map of the world, that if printed, would be something like six feet tall.
He’s also recreated online versions of all the US Government’s Hazmat Placards.
This was better than most lesbian erotica books I’ve read, I have to say. I’m normally not a huge fan of the genre because it’s often so badly written that I can’t suspend my disbelief long enough to go for the ride. (So to speak.) I just get irritated by what I’m reading. Most of these stories were better written, or at least well edited enough not to tick me off before I could grok what the story was.
That said, there’s a huge issue of personal taste involved when it comes to the stories in this book, and to the genre in general. I’m really not wired to find the idea of sadomasochism/bondage/dominance appealing or intriguing. I’m not offended or grossed out or against it in any fashion. I fully support other people’s decisions to consensually tie each other up if they want to. But it’s not interesting to me, and I’d say roughly half these stories included it in some fashion or another. After awhile, I just skipped over them. I wish the genre were broken down further so that I could opt out of that particular flavor of short story.
I also have to admit that I’m not all that interested in the idea of gender role-playing or exploring masculine identities, or at least not to the extent that the stories in this book do. I know that these are ideas that the lesbian community is exploring and examining, especially as more transgender people start to recognize who they are and how they fit into society in general and the lesbian community in particular. But it’s also outside of my set of interests, and probably another way that I would break down the genre into categories so that I could opt out of skimming then skipping things that don’t interest me.
2019 update: Hellllooooo denial. I think there is some element of other people’s coming out process as trans masculine that is really put me off the idea of transitioning though. There was a lot of he-man macho posturing among trans men coming out that was uncomfortable and smacked of abuse.
The television show “Welcome to the Neighborhood” was supposed to be a huge hit. Seven families compete to win a McMansion on a cul-de-sac in an suburban neighborhood, with the winners being chosen by the neighbors. Turns out, the popular couple who won, by changing the hearts and minds of the redneck republican residents, were gay men. And ABC, fearing a backlash from the religious right in the form of a boycott of their pet film Chronicles of Narnia, killed the show because they thought viewers might object to a neighborhood embracing gay people as friends and neighbors.
Now the gay couple who won the house, and the neighbors who changed their minds to support them, are speaking out about what happened.
