It burns my cookies

Okay, well really, there are a number of things what really burn my cookies (Other than having the oven too hot or forget to start the timer.)

It makes me nuts when people put their flag up where it does not belong and move the scope of the real, root issue.

There was a story years ago where a woman was beaten, raped, stabbed, all repeatedly before being dumped and left for dead. The assailant was acquitted.
The woman had agreed to performing sex acts in exchange for drugs while at a night club, left with the guy, changed her mind on the way to his house (after using some of his drugs), and then he attacked her.

Okay, she was dressed "like a prostitute"
She promised to have sex with him
She used drugs, then did not "pay up"

All those things are bad, questionable, whatever.  People all over started raising issues for decency and anti-drug campaigns. Whatever.  What this boils down to is that nothing, nowhere, nohow excuses his behavior.

There is no instrument anywhere in humanity that says "Well, it is okay to do that because..."

Nothing.

So today I was sent this thing about "anti-bullying policies" that do not factor in LGBT.  Why should they?  Why should they have to itemize the things for which a person could be bullied.

Before there is a lot of yelling, let me explain.

A, "C beat me up."
B, "That is terrible, A.  Why did you do that, C?"
C, "Because I felt like it."
B, "C, I am appalled. There will be severe retribution."

Or:

A, "C beat me up."

B, "That is terrible, A.  Why did you do that, C?"

C, "Because A is gay."

B, "Oh, well, fine then."

The story was that there was a gay boy beaten in school, it was caught on camera video, no one helped, and the assailant was punished.  The argument is that it is a hate crime and the punishment was insufficient.  What we do not know is if the punishment is or is not consistent with other hate-crime punishments.

See what I mean?  There is no need to distinguish a person's characteristics when talking about protection from abuse.  Hate crime is hate crime and the story was presented with insufficient perspective.

If there was some sense of self defense like, "he was beating me up and I fought back" or "I felt threatened and I had no other recourse for protection," and I am sure, plenty of other reasons where it may be justified for one person to use physical force against another person, but it is never okay to do it because they have different beliefs, look different, or for their sexual orientation.

It is never okay to rape.  That is just.... no, never.

So, this.... junk-mail.... is not getting my support because I am not just jumping on a LGBT wagon and making a fuss.  I would not get on a race or religion wagon either under these conditions.

People, just get over yourselves, put down your banner, quit "occupying" and deal with the real issues.

It also irks me when the law gets in the way of justice.

I'm a Friday with a Cause

Real story time.
You know how you get those e-mails, tweets, whatever and you can just _tell_ from the wording, the careful omition of details, that prodding to get you to read further and get sucked into the story where either they want you to forward the e-mail to everyone you know, or send money, or upload you banking information. Oh, you know the ones I mean.
This is one. Kinda.
What: Love146
Why: because I believe in the cause.

So, here is the story, okay?
While I was reading Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest), and there were all those stats about crimes against women and the sex-trafficking, it was really hard. A lot about the series was very hard to get through because of the personal connections.

I get asked just about every time I try to explain how, at 17, I have had HIV for going on eleven years. It happens, sure, but people want to know how it happened to /me/ and why I do not agree that I was raped.

To say that I was, I feel, diminishes what it is that happens to too many people, too many times every single day.
I am trying to keep the vocabulary here my own, and family friendly, so if something seems vague, keep the subject in mind and understand that I am talking about the absolute worst, inhuman, atrocities.

I was in the ER once, getting stitched up (don't worry about why) and I was listening to the conversation on the other side of the curtain on my right. Anything to take myself away from where and who I was. It was a girl that was raped. The cause of death was bleeding. Front and back. The girl's mother was not there. She was being sought by the police. /IF/ there was any DNA from the actor, they were going to have to go in and get it in autopsy. A nurse vomited. The person stitching me up asked if I was going to be okay for a second and I nodded. While attention was on the cleanup and the half fainted nurse, I got up and walked over to peek around the curtain.
The girl could not have been more than 3 years old. Her mother "rented" her out to pay for her drugs.
The next thing I remember, I woke up in restraints "for my protection" but that did not sit well with me either. I would not let anyone with external reproductive organs anywhere near me.

Later, I took a tour and visited all sorts of children that were there for all sorts of reasons. The nurse taking me around was reluctant to provide full disclosure, but I told her, "I just say a baby stabbed to death with a p'nis. You going to tell me this is worse." She looked at me in that you-have-no-idea sort of way and said, after a sigh, "Imagine when they live." We kinda bonded a little and she was less reserved.
We were visiting some burn victims later and she looked at me from the side, "What are you thinking?" I said, as I looked at a boy who was under one of those tents because like 70% of his skin was gone, "the people who brought him here knew he is human." She knew what I meant. Humans fight. Humans steal, beat each other up, murder... Humans love and hate and act like humans. What was done to the other children we saw, to the baby in that was dumped outside the hospital, what is done daily to people and children all over the world; they are treated like rags, like dirt, with no more regard than an old news paper. Only worse. The degradation. The insult. If they were /only/ beaten. If they were /only/ ignored. If they were /only/ neglected. Those things would not be as bad.

It is not /just/ men on girls. This is an equal opportunity exploitation. Yes, it is /mostly/ men on girls, but the boys cannot be forgotten. It is children of all sorts. People are fighting it. People want it to stop. People want it not only out of their back yard, but gone from the world.

It is sad. It angers me.

But even more - more than the violence, the trafficking, the disregard for human rights and decency - is that little nugget of knowledge I try to bury lest I loose all hope: None of it would happen if there were not a market for it.

http://www.firstgiving.com/ladyquindecim
Fight it.

My Jove, I think he's got it.

Well, there is hope at last.

The contractor guy who sends this data work my way interceded. 1) he explained that no, it was not okay, but that the compiled data they got back from the other guy may be bad. 2) said they need to get their extract fix, 3) Told Mr Honcho in no uncertain terms that he was not entitled to contact me directly - certainly not without including him.

So, the short of it all is that the character is not supposed to be in the data. *If* I removed it so my process would work correctly, it still would mean that the raw data is compromised. They are doing to have to have the stuff on their end looked at. This seems a little anti-climactic after how the guy irked me so.

Dad says that I have had a big problem staying ... myself these past few days and yeah, I have big missing blocks with this going on. It is not worth it.

I got other stuff to do.

Take Care
LQ

Working for People is Frustrating

Mercy.

Some people.

So... the data format saga continues.

Mr Honcho, waiting for his compiled data, was like, "We are sending you the same format that we were sending the other guy and he didn't have a problem with it."

I was like, "I can't speak on the other data sets as I did not process them. This data set has is not properly formatted and if I processes the data now, it will produce bad results."

So Mr Honcho decides that I need to look at what the last guy did and fix my process and it is already late so I had better get it done fast.

He has some sample data sets and the results sent to me and I look at them. Yes, the data is bad going in and my results are identical to what the last guy produced.

"Mr Honcho. The sample dataset I was provided is similarly bad and my results are identical to the ones that were provided to you. If your IT folks require anything from me, please let me know."

And Mr Honcho replies, "If you are getting the same results that they did, then obviously everything is fine with the data and you need to get me my results back. Please Hurry."

(These all are not really quoted. I am paraphrasing.)

My reply: "Excuse me?"

The next sound you hear will be my head making contact with my desk.


Take Care-
LQ

Nothing to see here

I was thinking, "you know?"  I often ask myself if I know without asking what I know.  But I went on. "I have had a bit on my mind.  I should probably probably blog it."

So I came here and saw that there were almost 40 page visits yesterday.  I was like "Whoa."

See, when I, like, post something that I am actually trying to get out there in the ethernets, AND I, like, tweet about it - Something like when I post more fiction on my Deviant Art (Yeah, that is it over on the right.  Hold down [CTRL] when you click on it so it will be sure to open in a new tab so you don't loose you place here.) - then I get a fair number of hits.

But it was like, a Tuesday.  I had not even made a new post.  But I had a fair number of hits on last Friday's page.  Weird.

So, why was I coming here to post?  What was I going to blog about?  It hardly seems relevant now.
[More like, you can't remember what it was.]
{Oh hush.  I remember, just not at the moment.}
[Uh, huh.  Sure.]
{Oh! Yeah.}

So, it is like, what, 4 in the morning now.  I tried sleeping.  Really, I did.
So, what do I do when I cannot sleep through the nightmares?  Most often, I try to grab hold of them, pick them apart, and that usually helps me move on or whatever.

Tonight, like many lately, they have been too.... intangible.  Just, like, random images of fire, death, decay and emotions of loss, hopelessness, fear, hate and a sense of pain and disease.

On nights like this, once I finally give up trying to sleep, I get up and do some yoga and try to meditate.  Let me rephrase that; I do meditate, but with varying degrees of success. Not that meditating is a win-loose endeavor, but I think that you get the picture.

So, I have Irish oats that I started yesterday that should be ready today (well, I hope so, because I am about to go have some when I am done with this post) and get some started for tomorrow.

It is times like this where I am permitted run of the kitchen-
[so long as you do not use any knives]
{so long as I do not use any knives}
-where I have gotten "creative" and kinda taught myself a thing or two about cooking.

In other blogs, I have talked about being in the kitchen and cooking being a group project. And that is all good and stuff.  I learned how to use the kitchen and the tools therein.  But to really experiment, you need to be alone, cooking for no one but yourself - free to make mistakes.

It is like a lot of things - free to make mistakes.  That is how we grow and learn and improve and master our world.

Somewhere else (yesterday, I think) I posted somewhere something about how the Earth is alive and she is strong and resilient, but that we need to clean her up.  Our Mum needs a makeover.  As a human race, we have been running wild.  We have been living the nightmares, battling with ourselves.  We-
[Oh, no.  You are not about to get all soap-boxy, are you?]
{Yes. Yes I am.}
We, need to give up the fighting; do a bit of yoga and meditation; get in the kitchen and put what we have to work for us.
We have learned so much over the millennia (milleniums? Whatever) and it is high time we put it to work for us.
No one is going to take care of the planet for us.  No one is going to come and clean our house.  No one is going to pick up after us.

Oh, yeah... that was bad.  Sorry.  I try not to get that way.  Hopefully I got it out of my system and will not need to go off like that again.  Ever.
Oh, well.

There were some other things I was thinking about discussing here, but they will wait for another post.

Um, then, well.... Have a good Wednesday.
[Say hump-day.]
{What? No.}
[Go on.  The rest of the week is down hill.  Say it.]
{No, I'm not going to do that.  People will think I mean... No.  Just (ew) no.}
[Spoilsport.]
{Whatever. I am going to ignore you.}

Take Care.
LQ