Color Me Bad

I am going to alienate you now. I think I've been a long time somewhat reserved now and "safe" in my postings. I'm super tired and this discussion has been damaging my head for a few days now, really heavily today and now I'm just going to spill it all out and see where the words land.

I think it's high time I came out: I'm a racist.

Now, not in the sense that I think "X" people should be treated differently than "Y" people (and by differently I mean in-equally, inferiorly, or as some fucking threat or object of entertainment). But in the sense that "yeah, we're different, so fucking what?" Not in the foul "hate you for being different than me" way. THOSE people, it isn't just that they're racists, but they're also douche bags and they make being a douche bag a fucking extreme sport at which they excel.

Still, the term it's still so frakking cringe-worthy. And damn it, I think the extreme sportsmen of douche baggery really deserve some sort of label for their douche baggery. And of course it's going to remain "racism" because the term is already long applied and accurate in itself.

But. . .(and here is where, if I don't have you alienated a bit by now, I really piss you off) we're all racists and we all know it. I'd go far enough to say that if there's an "-ist" out there, it also applies to all of us. Are you deferential to your elders, maybe you help the elderly with physical tasks you deem beyond their ease? You ageist mother lover. Guys--sight of a crying girl get your protective "fix things" urge rising? Sexist pig. I work with a dude who is very into his green, has multiple baby mamas and frequently jokes with me about how he thinks I know all the other white people because I'm white.

I think we need to stop making this notion of colorblindedness to bed. Celebrate everyone for who they are, including all of their differences. My best friend is not white and I couldn't even fathom imagining a version of him that comes from a world where our differences don't inform who we are. I think it's patently offensive. Our differences, color inclusive, help to have informed our entire development through life. How much more insulting is it to pretend otherwise?

I'm white and male. I'm not any better than anyone else because of this. Two of my favorite former professors are a black woman and a white woman and I think they're both awesome, and each of their levels of awesome are independent of their pigment or their gender.

People, start being better to each other. Start realizing that the pursuit of being politically correct just makes you a bigger ass, however inadvertently, than you were before you acknowledged your peers for who they are. Get over it already.

And take it all ways, people. If you pull up beside me and I'm sining along to Dre, if he drops the frickin' N-bomb, I'm going to drop the fricking N-bomb too because that's the fucking music and I'm in my zone, loving my music. I won't hold it against you that you're singing "Pretty Fly For a White Guy" in your car next to me.

Drink Up

I've been saying this about bottled water for years.

Yummy yummy tap water.

Freckles

Jack has one under his right eye I'd never noticed before, ditto the one on Claire's left shoulder. Maybe it's the extra 600-odd pixels per inch, or just the larger physical size of the tv (I'm going with the pixels), but these are minor details I'd never noticed before. I never saw Kate's freckles, and it annoyed me to no end that her nickname from Sawyer was "Freckles" given I could never see them. My goodness, as much as I hate the character, she actually does have freckles, and they are purty. Charlie's tattoo says "Living is easy with eyes closed" which fits his character's story enough that I wonder if it's a fake tattoo like Jack's or if it's a real one of Dominic Monaghan's.

So if you haven't figured it out, I've been slowly re-watching Lost in Blu-Ray. I'm averaging about two episodes a week, which is actually a decent enough pace--at this rate I expect to just finish season 5 (not out yet) as season 6 begins to air. I'm enjoying the massive amount of foreshadowing. There are things in the pilot that foreshadow events & themes of the tail end of season 5. There are a couple other things though. . .inconsistencies? Some time between season one and season five, Jack starts shaving his chest. Maybe his focus in the love triangle (square?) is misplaced? And in episode five, the one that starts with the red shirt drowning who Jack fails to save--we learn, from Charlie, that Charlie can't swim. Charlie can't swim. So unless there's a "Charlie learns to swim" episode I've forgotten, there's a pretty big inconsistency between episode five Charlie and Charliein the last two episodes of season three.

Too Long For Twitter

Three or so weeks this time. . .things have been good. And not so good, but the not so good is really not so bad.

For years now I've been getting this recurring pain in my feet, usually when the weather changes significantly. I've always attributed this to joint pain/arthritis from complications coming out of the many ankle injuries I've had from when I played volleyball. It turns out that I've been partly right all along--it has been an arthritis of sorts. The past two weeks I was suffering some incredible foot pain, often so bad that it made me physically ill as I tried to tough it out as I usually do. Eventually it grew so great that I decided to go to the emergency room right after work (at 2a.m.); my McMinion and buddy Lex did me a massive solid by coming with me (a solid that proved necessary once the pain meds they gave me in the e.r. made it quite impossible for me to drive). It turns out I suffer from gout. Look it up on Wikipedia. Foot still hurts, but being tended to properly and feels much better.

On the moving front. . .Denise and I eventually grew so frustrated and tired of the search that we decided to put the move off at least another year, waiting to see how other things pan out before making the ultimate decision as to when and where to move for the long term. The positive in this is that we then took the money we had saved for the move and did some much needed home refurbishing. It actually almost feels like we have a new home anyway.

This week has a trip to San Francisco that, while necessary, I'm really not looking all that forward to (and a pre-emptive massive thanks to our friends for both helping with childcare and the loan/swap of transportation. Neither of our cars have air conditioning and that alone would make the journey misery); with a repeat trip later in August.

Oh, and a quick shout out congratulations to one of my favorite people, Adrienne, for the birth of her second child!

That's enough brain dump for now.