Sunday is Gloomy

I'm having a wonderful rainy Sunday, finally having a chance to just lie in bed drinking tea and spending some quality time with my friend, the Internet.
Some things coming up soon:

• Tomorrow I'm having the last of my tattoo inked in, it will finally be fully coloured and come to life. Not really looking forward to being in pain for another four days or so, but them's the breaks.
• Thursday I have an appointment up at the hospital to assess my health and put me on the list to have surgery to have the lump removed from my boob. The doctor I'm seeing is Dr Christopher Pike, which pleases me no end. One beep for yes, two beeps for no.
• July 4th I will be working at the Paniyiri Greek festival on at Musgrave Park, South Brisbane, cleaning up plates of octopus, half-eaten honey puffs and red wine. It's going to be disgusting, but I'll be rich by the end of it.
• July 11th is Prime Nightclub at the Shafston Hotel in East Brisbane, from 8pm till 2am and it is going to be AWESOME. My friends Chani and Disa are running it and if you want more info check out their twitter stream here: @PrimeBrisbane

I went to a party last night at Chani's house to celebrate the Solstice - longest night of the year. She has a party every year where everyone stays up all night having fun. I lasted till about 2am before me and my boyfriend cabbed it home. I'm so not up for late nights anymore. It gets to about 1am and I just can't be bothered staying awake anymore. It's not like when I was 14 and drinking a cup of coffee every hour just so we could stay up to watch the sun rise. The sun rise is no fun anymore.

I have been considering having my own clothes swap party after having a great time at @definatalie's a few weeks back and scoring some excellent new clothes when I really needed them. I'm just having a bit of trouble with deciding who to invite. The whole point of the party that I liked the most was the body-positivity aspect, a safe space to grab some clothes that make you feel good and get rid of the ones that don't. I'm kind of afraid that I won't be able to get that point across to the people that I do want to invite - and I'm not sure some of them would understand it. I'm afraid to throw a party where people will come along and feel bad about their bodies, cause that's the exact opposite of what I want.

Anyway, I feel like making cupcakes and playing with my rat, so here are some obligatory zombie links for ye.

Undead Barbie
A giant list of zombie rhymes
Zombie Apocafest Lego festival set on flickr - awesome! Need to go out and get myself some Lego.
Zombie High Heels

And finally, please enjoy the shit out of this AMAZING claymation zombie film. It's actually really creepy and the goriest thing ever! Youtube user takena has heaps more bloody claymation movies on his channel, check them out!

Workworkwork

I know I haven’t blogged in ages and I suck. I’m sorry. I’ve been really busy at work lately which is awesome and makes me happy. My position is changing so now not only am I doing my current job which is sort of administration/personal assistant to everyone/lackey but I’m also doing sales and quoting now which is a whole new skill set I’m not used to but I’m enjoying learning. I have lots more to fill my days with!

I was just asked to have a look at creating a corporate blog for our company so now I’m all excited because I love more responsibility and being able to do something I know.
And then I researched it and realized how very little I know about creating websites so I’m looking for lots and lots of suggestions.
Specifically, if you’re interested in helping me out, please leave me a comment answering any or all of the following questions….

What corporate/business blogs do you visit that really stand out to you, and what are the features that keep you interested and coming back, what use do you get from them?

What kind of posts would you be most interested in reading on a business blog?

What do you NOT enjoy seeing on business or corporate blogs?

Lastly does anyone have a WordPress blog? I’m considering starting one up and maybe moving over there – I like the look of the site and lots of the features there, it seems a lot more in-depth and customizable than Blogger here.

Comments may be redeemable for cupcakes. Please contact me for further information.

Books

I've been taking a blogging & internet vacation lately, because I'm too stressed to talk about anything other than my problems, and I'm too caught up in my own problems to look at other blogs or care about what other people are doing.
To wind down every night I watch a couple episodes of The Office because mama needs her stories and I just can't get over how awesome it is to watch Jim & Pam.

The other night I finally took the time to watch No Country For Old Men and I wish I hadn't waited so long because it's shot straight into my All Time Top Five Favourites. I need to get my hands on a copy of the book - so if you can help out, please do.

I went to the Lifeline Bookfest today and here's what I scored:
The Incredible Melting Man by Phil Smith - exactly what it sounds like.
The Change by George C. Foster - a sci-fi novel exploring the ramifications of a world where humans begin to grow younger instead of older.
Red Sonja - fuck yeah. Anyone else excited for the new Rodriguez movie coming out starring Rose McGowan?
The Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany - Some guy, in some world, somewhere in the universe, does something. I don't know, but I've been wanting to read some Delany.
The Funhouse by Owen West - Horror in a circus sideshow.
The Furies by Keith Roberts - Atomic war on earth breeds giant wasps with bloodlust.
Tron by Brian Daley - TRON!!!
Looking For Jake by China Mieville - Mieville is supposed to be a super awesome author, and I've tried to read him before but he writes epic things I just can't get behind. This one is a set of short stories so I'll start out this way.
Others & Shrine by James Herbert - Supposed to be one of the best horror writers ever. Time to give him a go, also, people with the last name Herbert seem to be great sci-fi/horror writers.
Also got two big horror anthology books, and one novel (Surrender the Pink) by CARRIE FISHER! I love you Carrie Fisher.

What's your favourite horror novels, authors, movies?

Now it's Office time, but I'll end by showing this awesome No Country related video I just found. Laugh. Enjoy yourself.

Worst Wednesday Ever

My apologies for not posting in a while - my net got capped last week, work has been ultra busy and today has joined the other nominees in the election of Worst Day of My Life.
I will give a few brief reasons before I move on to just link-spamming, posting this, and going to sleep. It's not even 6pm. I'm done with today.

• Our job positions are changing at work and I had to spend time training. It was godawful.
• Somehow nothing I did was good enough and my boss (dad) was treating me like an idiot.
  
• I have the worst period cramps ever. No amount of painkiller will help. I also have a ginormous headache that just won't go away.
  
• I just got my tattoo re-inked on Monday, so that is also swollen, painful and itchy.
• I swapped desks with someone, and in the process I started to smell real bad. I didn't take any deoderant to work.
• I had to spend hours going back over a convoluted spreadsheet because I wasn't given the correct information the first time.
• Around the end of the day I received a phone call from my doctor's surgery to say that my pap smear test had come back with an abnormal reading. I didn't even listen at the time, just booked another appointment. It wasn't until I started walking home that I realised what that means. Bit of a shock.

AND NOW, TO DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION ELSEWHERE, SOME LINKS!

If you're in Brisbane and free on Saturday 20th June you should definitely come to the Dead of Winter Festival at the Jubilee Hotel in the Valley because it will be a full day of bands, booze, burlesque, market stalls and horror movies. Dude. That rules. Check out their myspace page if you dare.

You can read the first chapter of author S.G. Browne's zombie romantic comedy called Breathers here. I read it and it wins my seal of approval - perhaps I may even buy the book. It seems in Browne's zombie world, when you turn into a zombie it's like turning into a "lower class" of people. You can still talk and think and love - you're just filthy cause you eat brains.

The Black Cherry Bombshells is an awesome comic about chicks who kill zombies. Are you guys sensing a theme here too? It's available to read online.

Oh, holy crap, THIS one rules - It's a company called MotoArt who create wicked furniture out of used airplane parts. Yeah. Dude. I'm not saying anyone reading this will be able to afford any of that furniture, but you should click on that link just so you can drool over the thought of having a wing-table. Or an engine-desk.

Inner City Snail. It's awesome.

The trailer for the film adaption of Cormac McCarthy's awesome book The Road. It has sweet sweet Viggo Mortensen *drool*.



Also one last one from Shakesville's Feminism 101 to shut you up if you were thinking of telling me maybe I'm only having a bad day cause I'm on the rag. Cause I already had one person tell me that today, and the only thing their mother has left to bury is a skin-sack.

Goodnight!

STFU

Of course I apologise! No, of COURSE it is MY fault that everything in your life is so terrible, of course it is my doing that you hate your job and you can't get a girlfriend. Of COURSE I will take responsibility for other people treating you like shit and for when your housemates piss you off. No, it was obvious how I was directly involved in all of the events that made you upset and you should definitely take it all out on me because I just deserve it for being such a terrible person. Only a terrible person would listen to you every single time you want to cry about how terrible your life is - which is every time you open your mouth. Only a terrible person would invite you to do things with them and endure not only being turned down but berated for wanting to do such a ridiculous, stupid thing. Only a terrible person would always stick by you just watching you do NOTHING and continue to complain about it. I guess I'm a fucking terrible person.

Thursday Confession

Thursday Confession
In which I try to reveal one of my obsessions, secrets, stupid kinks about myself that I wouldn't otherwise talk about in normal conversation.

I have an intense obsession with Medusa.
In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of the three Gorgon sisters - the other two being Stheno and Euryale. They are described thus:
Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged
With snakes for hair— hated of mortal man—

In Ovid's Metamorphoses is it said that originally Medusa was beautiful and lived as a priestess in the goddess Athena's temple, but became filled with rage and hatred for men after she was raped by Poseidon in the temple. Athena effects a punishment upon Medusa, transforming her hair to snakes and disfiguring her face with blind fury so that any man who looks upon it will be turned to stone. It's good to see victim-blaming was alive and well back in BC.
The gorgons are conversely described as either being of monstrous form, or as beautiful as they are terrifying. I prefer the latter description.

In the tale, Perseus is sent by the his future father-in-law King Polydectes to retrieve Medusa's head as a gift. He travels to the island where the Gorgons live, and is aided by Athena and Hermes, who each give him magical swords, shields and the like as Gods tend to do. Perseus eventually decaptitates Medusa by looking at her reflection in his shield as he cuts off her head. He puts it in a sack and takes it back to the King. The sight of Medusa's terrible severed head turns the King to stone, Perseus' mother is saved, all is right with the world, some people go off and marry their mother, Zeus rapes a few more women, some guy travels to the ends of the earth for no reason, more women are condemned to Hades, the world keeps spinning and the heavens are still held on the shoulders of Atlas.
Athena is given the head of Medusa and attaches it to her shield, the Aegis, and by this time I think it's safe to say Athena is a stone cold bitch. But that's a post for another time.

While there are a lot of things to despise about this tale - punishing a victim for her rape, having her killed - the idea of Medusa is so alluring and so powerful that I can't help but love it. Even if she is murdered in the end, her power never dies. She is the personification of female power and raw fury. So gaze upon her.

Stay tuned for posts on Athena and Persephone!
Please leave a comment if you wish me to explore any other awesome woman figures in mythology - Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse, I love them all.

Double Clicking the Mouse

One of the people I follow on twitter, msnaughty, posted this awesome video of euphemisms for female masturbation sometime last week I think it was and I wanted to share it and some linkage to other sexy stuff on teh intarwebs. The thing I love most about this video is the totally smug music. It's not pretending to be something it ain't. Hehe...Taint.
Can you guess them all?



I'm going to follow this up by talking about how much I dearly, dearly love and am crushing on the beautiful Violet Blue, who is an author, blogger, sex educator, reporter, columnist, artist and my biggest crush. You should visit her site full o' porn, interesting blog posts, her podcasts and videos and links to multiple places on the web where she is present. And she really is a gift. I look forward to the day I have enough money to buy some of her books - I listened to one of her podcasts on the peak-hour train the other morning where she narrated some Peter Pan themed erotic fiction. It was awesome, and I sat there wondering if I'm the only person who would listen to erotica in peak-hour on the train. I think I probably am.

Here's a sweet listicle from io9.com of 10 authors who put sex in their sci-fi, because I'm sure you all love to read about aliens getting it on as much as I do.

Here's the hottest thing I've ever seen, a Fight Club themed set on Suicide Girls which has a permanent place in my bookmarks list, and my heart. I don't know about anyone else, but I went through a pretty intense Fight Club obsession a few years ago, and I kind of ruined both the movie and book for myself because I read it too often, and spent two weeks watching the movie twice every night. Sometimes in slow-mo.

If you're living in Brisbane and interested in burlesque, head to Scoundrelles in the Valley. A couple of my twitter friends take classes there and hearing all the talk of it makes my heart weep because I seriously cannot afford it. This also stays on my bookmark list for later on in the year, when my all my wishful thinking magically turns into more money!

One for the girls that I found the other day which RULES - you know we all put stuff in our bras, like coinage, bus tickets, paper money, cards, keys, vodka bottles, trinkets, shoplifted goods, bottles of sauce, tissues, deoderant cans and small mammals? Well now you can by a Rack Trap and it fits in your bra real easy so you don't have to go digging deep in front of complete strangers when you lose your $2 coin!

One last link - I was going to do an entire post about my large collection of vibrators, but I figured that might make everyone a little uncomfortable, and normally I'm totally into making people uncomfortable, but I also thought it might make people a little jealous. So instead I'm just going to show you the vibrator that I want more than anything in this world, and maybe, just *maybe* some kind sugar daddy will buy it for me, no strings attached.
BEHOLD, the SaSi!
Watch Zara from ShinyShiny.tv do a review of the most amazing and intelligent vibrator ever created.



So if I end this post by saying - love yourselves and each other - you know what I mean right?

Link Comes to Town Monday

I haven't blogged for a bit because I've been a mixture of all the bad feelings you can have, including but not limited to - pissed off, let down, angry, full of rage, anxious, nervous, worried, fearing for my life, depressed, not wanting to wake up, frazzled, stressed out and did I mention full of rage? That's the feeling I have most. I see red, I see red, I see red.
If anyone has any tips on how to manage anger, other than fucking "count to ten", advice would really be appreciated, because the crescent-shaped scabs on my palms from where my fingernails cut in when I clench my fists are getting really itchy, and my jaw just won't unclench.
ANYWAY! In other news, I just cut my hair, I have a face mask on, I did a whole lot of fucking around today for no reason at all, I was supposed to get my tattoo finished but it's not healed enough yet, I am reading this book about parents who killed their baby girl and it gave me nightmares, I don't think I will have enough money to buy any food this week, and I really hope things are gonna turn out alright but if they don't I can always sell my organs for profit.

Now onto the links!
Earlier last week I made some tweets about what to do in the event that Brisbane's torrential rain and flooding would be the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and they seemed to be a hit, so if you would like to further create your plans for the end of days, I suggest you check out the Zombie Survival & Defense Wiki and you might live longer than most.

I've been listening to podcasts on the train to & from work lately because it blocks out the sound of all those people just talking and talking and one I particularly like is the New Yorker Fiction Podcast - where authors read out other author's short stories, and it's soothing and there are some EXCELLENT stories, like Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.

Because all I've been doing lately is playing Left 4 Dead (no really, it's ALL I've been doing) and talking about zombies, I'm sure you guys would appreciate as much as me this awesome post on i09.com from last year about Zombie Feminism. As if you even need any more convincing to read it than the title. ZOMBIE FEMINISM.

Speaking of Left 4 Dead, I hate vans.

One for the poorer among us, CookingByNumbers.com is a site where you put a tick in the boxes next to everything you have in your cupboard and it gives you a recipe.

Aaand Cooking Conversions, for when you get recipes given to you with annoying imperial measurements.

I went to a mini twitter meetup on Sunday afternoon at the Fox Hotel for $2 steaks and here's a little flickr photoset to show you just how annoying I can be with a camera.

OMGBREAKINGNEWS I'm talking to my brother on MSN right now and he just sent me this link and HOLYSHIT: Beard.

I will try to write more. I've been trying to do other things more, like read and draw and play video games, so it takes my mind away from my blog. So keep reading, and sending your love down that well.

Women can be misogynists too

After all the discussion of (yes I am bring it up once again) the crazy footballer sex/rape/whatevershutup saga, the one thing people keep talking about are the ugly attitudes emerging from people in regards to women...rape...sluts. And the one thing that keeps being said is "I can't believe these attitudes are coming from so many other women".
At first I was a little shocked too, possibly because I only ever discuss these topics in my online bubble of the feminist blogosphere so I guess I'm not used to being faced with "dissenting opinion" that is so incredibly WRONG. But the thing that you forget when you only ever talk to people who agree with your views is that women can be misogynists just as much or more than men.

Here's a quote from a Feminism 101 post at Shakesville that explains why women can be misogynists (do I really have to urge you to read the whole post?):
"Men and women are misogynist for different reasons: men to marginalize women, and women to ingratiate themselves with the men trying to marginalize them. Neither one is justifiable, but one is oppressive and the other is a (bad) strategy to deal with that oppression."

I agree completely with this sentiment and I can say that looking back on my younger self I can say for sure that I was a misogynist. I was told all my life that Real Girls (TM) only like pink, at school they play netball and they're not allowed to wear the same uniform as boys, and at lunch time they have to all sit around talking while the boys get to play. I internalised that I wasn't a Real Girl (TM) because I didn't like Britney Spears, and I liked my hair short and I kicked ass at soccer and because I would ride my bike with the boys. As I got older I realised that now instead of being indifferent to me, all the other girls had started to hate me for some unknown reason. I got enough teasing to last me a lifetime from boys, but mostly from girls, so I spent most of my school years avoiding girls, hating them because they all got to be perfect Real Girls while I was some kind of in-between, there was no way that I could possibly be a Real Girl, how could I be without compromising and giving up everything I liked?
But that's bullshit. There is obviously no definition for a Real Girl, no matter what society tells us - we are all Real Girls, let's just say by virtue of being a living breathing entity who was born/is transitioning to a woman. When I learnt this, I felt like a completely different person. I stopped defensively hating all those girls who I didn't even know, and the more I made friends with other girls I realised that none of them were those perfect pink Real Girls - they were all just like me, and often just as confused. We can't sabotage each other to earn the approval of the patriarchy - whether we will admit that is the reason we are doing it or not.
Again from the Shakesville post:
"Men not being sexist shouldn't be contingent upon women not being misogynist. They should stop being misogynist just because it's the right thing to do... One thus sees that if the men who are misogynists weren't, the women who are misogynists wouldn't have any reason to be. Ergo, exhorting women to stop being misogynists so that men will stop gets it precisely backwards."

So the word I saw most used by misogynist women in regards to the footballer bullshit was the word Slut, and to be honest I've seen it used enough times in the past week to never want to hear or see it again. The word slut is a derogatory, insulting word used to offend promiscuous women - it's original uses also had connotations of a slut being a lowly, dirty person. This has not changed. Please don't try to tell me that calling a man a slut is the same thing, because it's really not, and if you want to argue that, go somewhere else.
It is women who are demonised for being promiscuous. Promiscuous, by the way, means having sexual relations with a number of partners on a casual basis, or being indiscriminate. Promiscuity is subjective - what may seem to you like an 'unreasonable' number of people to sleep with (let's say, two) is small fries for someone else, your taboo is someone else's fetish. Not to mention that women's sexuality is regarded as non-existent, or "receiving" of men's sexuality - and any woman daring to own or promote her sexuality is publicly dragged over the coals. Since promiscuity is subjective, there is no accurate scale for what is "too much" and there is no way you can ever call someone a slut and hide behind the excuse that she slept with "too many people". What you've just done is compared someone else's sexuality to your own and judged it to be immoral and inferior. Since when did a stranger's sexual life have any bearing on your own though?
This whole bullshit-explosion lately has made me think about these two issues and I really hope anyone reading this takes a moment to think about all the times they have hated a woman or used the word slut (or bitch, or cunt for the matter) and perhaps think twice next time you find yourself saying/feeling it, and try to examine why you're doing it.
It's hard enough to get by in the world just doing your own thing, and it's even harder when people are judging you unfairly for it.

Mid Morning Slacking

Holy crap the guy who lives next door to our office has the most beautiful afro I have ever seen. It's all surfer-blonde and gigantic and I think he pins back the front of it. This morning he came outside to say hi to me when he'd just woken up and it was this gigantic mess of curls and I didn't think it was possible to be in love with someone's HAIR, but well...I'm a believer.
He's a strange guy - when he talks to you, even if he's being nice, there's always an air of condescension to every sentence, even if he's just telling you to have a nice day. You can almost hear the silent "you asshole" at the end of that greeting.

I am having a super money freak-out this morning because I got so many bills and things to pay for and it's stressing me the fuck out. I do not earn enough money to cover all the things that need to be covered. I'm grabbing at straws here.
In case anyone is interested, ebay has zero insertion fees for auctions starting at 99 cents until May 30. I like to wait until they have specials like this, then sell off all my old coats, shoes, bags that don't fit or I don't use. I prefer it to giving them to lifeline, because you can usually make a few bucks off these things instead of nothing.
If you've never sold on ebay before, it's incredibly easy, don't be afraid. And if you want to sell stuff but you're still afraid, I'm willing to do it for you for commission. Yes I am that in need of money.

Tomorrow morning I have a biopsy scheduled for the lump in my boob (read this if you don't know what I'm talking about). Luckily it is bulk-billed, but it's probably going to be useless anyway, because regardless of what the outcome is I'm going to request it be surgically removed cause it is pissing me off. Hopefully that can be bulk-billed too but somehow I doubt that.

Yesterday I went on a podcast downloading spree and this morning on the train I listened to Bitch Magazine's podcast which was delightful. It consisted of people reading out letters, articles and reviews from the magazine, so it covered a few different topics and the presenters had soothing voices. They only have three podcasts so far and I'll definitely be looking forward to their new ones. If you're interested in a feminist look at pop culture, check it out. They are also on twitter.

I have a bit of a meatier post in mind to write tonight, but for now I have to get back to work. Please check back later because I have a few words to say about a topic that's been niggling at me for a while.
Be kind to yourselves...and each other ;)