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The miserable thread

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22:50 / 12.06.07

Fantastic, MW. That's so great.

23:43 / 12.06.07

But... but... my percentage....

07:00 / 13.06.07

The first year essays I'm marking? ARE SO BAD. It makes me doubt whether I'm actually a good teacher.

19:36 / 13.06.07

this is making me cry right now.

I think it is particularly upsetting mebecause no where in the article is the life of the whale as a unique being addressed. Just viewed as a repository for artifacts.

Can you imagine what it must be like to have everything go to such shit in one generation? Fuck.

21:11 / 13.06.07

MS Word isn't working, it's a whole three days 'til Doctor Who and everybody at work is repulsively bigoted and bad at their jobs.
My editor says that I've used the word "strode" too frequently in a piece I've submitted for publication, but I can only find one occurrence of it. That means ze didn't read it properly, or that ze just couldn't be arsed to read it and consequently I'm wasting my time writing for this publication.

I know it's all really tiny stuff that pales in comparison to everybody else's miserableness, but it's just been one of those days of cumulative horridness.

21:31 / 13.06.07

nix, i remember that feeling well. it's not that you are a bad teacher. it's that a) they're in first year and we all sucked in first year and b) you probably never realised how good your essays were in comparison to everyone else's...

00:49 / 14.06.07

in comparison to everyone else's being the key phrase here! i wasn't a secret genius after all, it's just that i could SPELL! thanks, though. i'm trying to have perspective!

02:17 / 14.06.07

that's right, and you probably knew how to write in complete sentences too! (seriously, i got a couple of essays in dot point format...)

02:23 / 14.06.07

I read the "Post-Secret" book at my local bookstore and I almost started crying right there in the store. The beauty and the pain and the catharsis. I haven't had a good cry in a long time. I almost cried in the shower the other day.

And now I'm listening to "Two Hearts" by the Jayhawks and I just read miss wonderstarr's troubles and I think I'm going to cry.

Sometimes shit happens to me, but it doesn't just happen, it goes on for a long fucking time and the only thing keeping me going is beautiful art.

03:00 / 14.06.07

I'm big on entertainment and how it is supposed to provide adequate escapism for the masses.

Unfortunately, I've found myself enjoying television, movies, and books less and less.

This started mostly with Spider-Man 3 (although I felt this way for awhile). That kinda was a punch in the stomach (I run a comic shop so I can't escape my dissapointment --- it's silly but I want to believe in all forms of art including comics).

But it's not so much the horrid storytelling that is getting to me. It's the acceptance of averageness. I read books, or watch films, and TV and I see the same repetition everywhere. Every crime film is about redemption, every rap video is a pissing contest, every TV show is promising an outcome soon but it never comes, every book I read is 70% good and then in the last 30% it goes to shit.

I want new ideas, I want new concepts, I want new ways of storytelling! I want someone to not write a story that doesn't follow a pre-set pyramid of how it is supposed to progress. I want a movie where the bad guys end up being likable and the good guys turn out to be the animals. I'm tired of Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society. How about Soceity vs. Man? huh? How about a story where the aliens aren't more intelligent than us. A story where the dialouge isn't a Tarantino-rip off. A rock song that isn't about your self-obsession and angst. A movie where we lose World War 2? A horror film that isn't some cheap imitation of Hitchcockian subtlety but not a torture film? A TV show that doesn't overstay it's welcome for 2 extra seasons? An establish superhero who says "fuck it" and kills his arch-enemy instead of changing his mind at the last minute. A sci-fi story that isn't about the dangers of technology? A love story where love doesn't conquer all? A racially diverse story that doesn't force the concept of race down my throat?

I know people have done these things at some point in time but it's TOO FEW AND FAR BETWEEN ALL THE SACRED COWS!

I want something more. I want something different. I'm bored with the classic concepts and ideas.

All this cause of Spider-Man 3...

miss wonderstarr

06:03 / 15.06.07

frigging eye has "healed" more and the left iris is now significantly higher than the right.

Of course this shouldn't matter to anyone ~ it wouldn't matter to me if I'd been born with it ~ but it matters to me because they eye looking "right" has become symbolic to me of this being "over" ~ of the thing people did to me being resolved so I can't see it anymore.

Now I'm back to thinking I've got a wrong eye, and that I have to keep checking it as it changes more... and after 48 hours of true joy at what I saw as its perfect state, ie. like it was/like the other one, during which I showed it off to people (including glorying about it on here, of course) I'm now conscious of it again in the wrong way.

I took sleeping pills because I didn't want to be awake thinking about it anymore.

next day: La Lutta Continua

*

07:26 / 15.06.07

Miss Wonderstarr, how you feel about your eye is yours alone. But, if I may make a suggestion...maybe you could think about whether there is some power you can take from having a physical reminder of how you've triumphed in this adversity. Your eye, the one that is so much more yours because your determination rescued it, has a sort of triumphant air to it.

Or not, as there's every chance that this too will adjust over time.

I've been so happy to read of how much recovered you've been in spirit, and my heart aches to think of you potentially losing any of that ground.

07:43 / 15.06.07

MW, as trite as it sounds it's going to take time to get over what has obviously been a truely shit time in your life. It may not be as easy as waking up one morning to find everything is cool and groovy again, it's pretty natural to have these ups and downs when you're recovering. But I think you have certainly proved that you have the strength to survive this. The entire board's behind you thinking positive thoughts.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:11 / 15.06.07

How about a story where the aliens aren't more intelligent than us.

Morons from Outer Space. You didn't say it had to be any _good_.

A story where the dialouge isn't a Tarantino-rip off.

Almost no Memory, a collection of stories by Lydia Davis.

A rock song that isn't about your self-obsession and angst.

Duffer St. George, The Fiery Furnaces

A movie where we lose World War 2?

Fatherland

A horror film that isn't some cheap imitation of Hitchcockian subtlety but not a torture film?

Shaun of the Dead.

A TV show that doesn't overstay it's welcome for 2 extra seasons?

Ultraviolet.

An establish superhero who says "fuck it" and kills his arch-enemy instead of changing his mind at the last minute.

Possibly Starman I with Ragdoll (although he got better), or but, really, in what sense would this be at all interesting?

A sci-fi story that isn't about the dangers of technology?

The Child Garden, Geoff Ryman.

A love story where love doesn't conquer all?

Gegen die Wand

A racially diverse story that doesn't force the concept of race down my throat?

I'm not sure what you mean, but I suspect that the answer is "Oh, dear".

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:13 / 15.06.07

MW: It's possible that you are changing as much as your eye at the moment - there's time yet for both to settle into a mutually happy relationship. Big huggles, either way.

10:44 / 15.06.07

A racially diverse story that doesn't force the concept of race down my throat?

Die Hard. Caucasian cops, African-American cops, Germans.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

10:59 / 15.06.07

A racially diverse story that doesn't force the concept of race down my throat?

I think this means "I want to see a film with brown people in it so as to reassure myself of my non-racist rightonness, but I don't want to be reminded of any possible divergence of opportunity, experience or culture between white and nonwhite characters, thus creating a funny feeling in my tummy." But hey, prove me wrong!

miss w: I'm so sorry--what a beastly setback. I'm sure that with time, things will settle down and you'll recover your equilibrium. In the meantime, keep taking care of yourself. You're still healing, and deserve nurturing while your body sorts itself out.

11:11 / 15.06.07

Also, the head of Nakatomi was Japanese (Hawaiian-born actor James Shigeta) and they had a terrorist of undefined Asian-American descent (played by Al Leong).

11:12 / 15.06.07

McClane himself was also of Irish descent.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:25 / 15.06.07

Well, how about Babylon 5? In which humans of all races, creeds, genders and colours behave like middle-class white American men, except that Dr. Franklin at one point inexplicably decides that he is directly descended from the Australian first peoples, and goes walkabout.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:28 / 15.06.07

Oh, and I think that dating across races is verboten, unless you mean actual races races, but I could be wrong.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:52 / 15.06.07

The aliens tend to have crudely drawn "racial" characteristis to make up this, though, Tannhauser, my ~good~ friend!

Christ, I'm talking about Babylon 5. Now I'm miserable. "This is Father Homily, a priest..."

Mysterious Transfer Student

11:58 / 15.06.07

Ergh, sorry to have to bring this up, but in this post TroyJ15 does self-identify as black. I don't defend any of his other comments but I thought it was important to remind ourselves of this before we go any further.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:04 / 15.06.07

Oops, missed that. Come back what I said, then.

Except the part about the Hive Mind etc.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:15 / 15.06.07

Actually, although it is dodgy on a number of levels, Lethal Weapon does not, if I recall correctly, make an issue of its cast's racial diversity, although it does represent albino special ops killers in an insensitive light.

12:53 / 15.06.07

Ah, but it was Lethal Weapon II that had the immortal line, "I guess he's been... de-kaffir-nated!" in it.

Alas.

16:31 / 15.06.07

Back on the miserable topic, I am. This morning I had a job interview that didn't go very well because I was too honest, then I went to work for 10, had a shit time at work, then going home for 2nd lunch a bird shat on my head (second time ever, second time this week) then while washing it out of my hair it restarted a nosebleed I got yesterday, then by the time I'd sorted that and put clean clothes on I had to come back to work for my third shift today finishing at 9pm having not eaten.
Fucksake.

Mysterious Transfer Student

16:42 / 15.06.07

Wow, that sure is a multiple pile up of shitty occurrences, Quantum. My sympathies.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

16:50 / 15.06.07

Oh, Quants- hope you'll be having something good to eat afterwards. Hope you feel better.

17:27 / 15.06.07

Ergh, sorry to have to bring this up, but in this post TroyJ15 does self-identify as black. I don't defend any of his other comments but I thought it was important to remind ourselves of this before we go any further.

Yeah. I really didn't understand where "Talk to Strangers" was going with that until I realized it was an assumption.

1) Shaun of the Dead is great. But it's not scary. I was talking about a film that finds new ways to actually scare people as opposed to the old ways.

2)Fiery Furnaces is quite alright. I've heard some

18:21 / 15.06.07

1) Shaun of the Dead is great. But it's not scary. I was talking about a film that finds new ways to actually scare people as opposed to the old ways.

Have you tried The Descent. I had pretty much accepted that I'd never be frightened by any movie until this superbly terrifying film scared me shitless.

Sorry about the threadrot.

18:42 / 15.06.07

Now the whole building is filled with the smell from the bakery downstairs. I am hungry and my stupid work smells of delicious garlic butter.
SQUEAMISH WARNING, mildly graphic post follows;
And the nosebleed still freaks me out, because it wasn't a normal nosebleed- I had a blemish on my nose for a few months like a burst blood vessel or something, a little red mark, then yesterday after drying my face I noticed blood on the towel, then noticed my nose was literally spraying a thin stream of blood to a distance of a foot in front of my face. My shock and concern were not alleviated by noticing that the spray was pulsing in time to my heartbeat.
That's right, I broke a tiny artery and got a nosebleed out of the front of my nose. Luckily the bleeding was staunched and stopped after 5-10 minutes, but I was not best pleased when the scab washed off while I cleaned birdshit out of my hair.
Actually, with a few hours distance, me leaning over the bath half naked with the shower head in one hand and my nose in the other, upside-down head drenched in water and pissing blood, no glasses on, trying not to shed tears of rage, is actually a pretty comical image.
You have to see the funny side, don't you.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

18:55 / 15.06.07

See, at that point I probably would have called in sick.

20:18 / 15.06.07

I'd left my bag and stuff at work. Still, it's over now, and I have booked a whole week off work for no reason, just because I hate it. w00t!
So why am I in the miserable thread? Because I only just realised 'Islamofascism' is not a type of Islamophobia at all, but actually an Islamophobic slur. By dropping a cartoon I thought was anti-islamophobe into the anti-racism thread no less, only to discover it was not satire but actually, seriously, anti-muslim propaganda.
Boy is my face red, and now I wonder if I actually have any clue what any words mean. It seems so obvious in hindsight, but I truly thought it was taking the piss, I am teh callow eejit. (*looks up callow* Immature, lacking in life experience/ Shallow or Weak Willed Phew.)

Mon Oncle Ignatius

20:33 / 15.06.07

Cheezus, Quantum, it sounds like you need, oh, maybe a week off work to recover? Enjoy the stiff drink! Can I join you?

As for the Islamofascist thing, I feel a little idiotic in turn for not really taking in that cartoon's content when it was posted either. It's odd what a little context can do: a cartoon posted in anti-racist poster thread by someone I have always seen putting an anti-racist perspective in hir posts + reading the board in between gaps at work = me not really taking note of the (somewhat garbled) message of the cartoon, so not saying - or thinking - anything much about it.

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