I have just been friended by the Therian Temple on Myspace.

And I just went to their website.

And I’m particularly inclined to “LOL HARDCORE” right now, just like jilduck: http://jilduck.livejournal.com/150777.html

But, if I had the money (that is, in the form of PayPal and a Credit Card), I’d blow $10 on the paperback of the Therian Bible.

Why?

Because I like books. I *love* books. In fact, when I do get my own house, I’ll most definately spend a substantial amount of dinero on books of various interesting types, both online and off.

Being familiar with the copyright nazis (and I say that in the “grammar nazi” sense) at DeviantArt and other places which host furry art, I’m wondering about WikiFur and what I consider to be the possible, future conflict of interest with Furry artists.

I mean, is it possible? There’s already a substantial amount of media in WikiFur’s commons, that goes without saying. But since imagery is the one thing that the Furry “fandom” piggybacks on for its very existence (I mean, without the art, what do you have? Fursuits?), there seems to be a conflict of interests between the concept of creative commons and commodity art (including the kind that is sold at conventions).

Or is it just me?

BTW, this is the first post that I’ve made with the word “furry” in the title in a long while. Feels wierd….

Some background on Gnash, si’l vous plait

At WWDC, Apple finally announced the end of their 12-year affair with IBM and their PowerPC chips with the replacement of the PowerMac G5 with the 64-bit, Xeon-processing Mac Pro (and their lesser-known server line as well).

They also offered a sneak peak of the next version of Mac OS X, Leopard (must have Quicktime or VLC to watch.

And at this moment, I’ve come to this very conclusion on the evolution of the operating system (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc.):

IT’S DEAD.

All of the really innovative operating systems have either gone bankrupt or been forced (sometimes thrown) out of the market.

And how long have we been using operating systems on the desktop (yes, I know that operating systems for game consoles, servers, and databases have been dating back to the 1950s)?

I mean, seriously, I just think that operating systems can’t get anymore advanced, only more bloated and shinified.

I mean, look at Leopard. Not much more to look at, and its being criticized by the most dedicated of Windows users as committing the same “copycatting” that Apple users have long criticized Microsoft (going back into the 80’s) for doing.

Then look at Windows Vista (this and Leopard are due out next year). They’ve put this off for so many years, and have withdrawn so many of the promised features (WinFS for one), and have received so bad benchmarks in beta (to be fair, Paul Thurrott blasted Vista for those failings), that now its being considered the first historic example of OS-as-bloatware (the beta took 4 minutes to boot up on a Pentium 4 fercrissakes!).

I’m serious. OSes are at the point where they can’t get any better, only bigger and shinier.

Can’t fucking believe that I was going all cookoo for Linux or OS X not long ago….

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5242692.stm

They fail to mention that Thomas Sankara, the guy who gave Burkina Faso its name, was also a motorcycle enthusiast; it gave him his revolutionary personality, similar to Che Guevara (haven’t read or seen “The Motorcycle Diaries”, though).

Anyway, that the cheaper motorcycles are being exported to Burkina, and, no doubt, other African countries, by China is but another sign of the growth of Africa’s spending on Chinese-made products.

At the same time, China is being criticized by the West for violations of copyright and intellectual property, including that PowerMac clone for $499 from a while back.

So, while China is appropriating as much of the West’s technology (legally or no) as possible, Africa’s being sent shiploads of cheap Chinese utensils, motorcycles, and other stuff that they usually couldn’t afford from Europe, the U.S., or Japan.

Would this make China a modern “Robin Hood”?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060720/D8J003Q01.html

Now, while there are lots of good intentions and recognized needs in this push for reconciliation between Africa and the Slave-Trade Diaspora, there are many things which are being ignored by the participants in this conference, which includes many heads of state (including Nigeria’s Obasanjo and the U.S.’s Bush) among its attendance.

For one, while I’m not, most other African-Americans in the U.S., having been somewhat immersed into the American mindset and almost totally isolated from Africa, are completely indifferent to Pan-Africanism, and have shown an inclination to focus far more upon their own immediate needs, while fretting (mostly privately) about how the system, and its progenitors, keeps them “down” or “on lock.”

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Africans are worrying about government oppression, famine, plagues, and poverty (which, if you look at the poorer majority of African-Americans or other Diasporan communities in the Americas, is never all that far from our doorstep, as we saw with Hurricane Katrina). They, also, could generally care less about Pan-Africanism, and, just like West Indians and Latinos to the U.S., are trying to tear down the doors to get to Europe.

Obviously, the “leaders” here and the “leaders” there have quite a disconnect with their respective constituents and their realities, and have to be reminded about that disconnect with a swift and constant reprimand from the E.U. or some other external supranational organization.

In fact, this kind of disconnect between “leaders” and their constitutents is a common feature of political life in the E.U., and the reason for why the European Constitution was soundly rejected in France and the Netherlands (two countries whose governments have just as soundly supported and bankrolled the E.U.) in referenda early last year.

So, if this move by the “dictators’ club” is to draw folks to Africa through citizenship and financial incentives, there’s got to be some “social diplomacy” on the part of the advocates that will convince folks both in their own countries and abroad to “come back”, letting them know that they will be accepted – politically, economically, and socially if they do seek residence.

It’s not enough to just give the folks a passport and an empty promise.

What would it mean to be both Gay and blind?

In the debate over homosexuality, one of the arguments used against it is that, rather than one being born into it, homosexuality is a “visually-learned behaviour”, one which is mostly driven by a so-called “lust of the eyes”.

However, the following links would fly directly in the face of such arguments:

American Foundation for the Blind forum – “sexuality and the blind”

Blind Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People

Robert Feinstein – “Being Blind and Gay” (from Chanton)

I’m supposing that its a rarity, as apparently it hasn’t even been discussed sufficiently within LGBT inner circles (I could barely pull up anything of relevance on Google; most of the returns were “gay blind date” or some blooper video involving confusion over whether this dude was either gay or blind). But it does pose a very interesting question.

I mean, look at porn (not in that way, LOL). People look at it to be sexually stimulated (be they gay or straight) and gratified with a masturbatory ecstasy (orgasm) for approximately 10 seconds. Blind people, however, don’t have porn, as their sex drive – or anything else, for that matter – isn’t, and can’t be, visually driven (especially if they were born blind).

On the other hand, porn is generally held by most folks in bad taste for that exact same reason as mentioned above (the part about the masturbatory ecstasy and short-term gratification).

So, if a blind person gets into a relationship with someone – gay or straight – does that mean that the relationship would be much more meaningful between the two because its relying less upon sight – something which we humans use so much that we take it for granted – and more upon touch, hearing, taste, and smell, which are far more intimate and less shallow?

I mean, what exactly would it be like to be without sight and dependent upon, or receptive to, a simple embrace by someone/anyone?

Blind people have a benefit that the rest of us probably will never have: a perception of the depth and width of human feeling, unfettered by our vanities, lusts, and frivolities.

I envy them.

Ever had one of those?

Well consider yourself lucky. I just had two!

Here’s the regimen:

Monday-Friday – School (8 AM – 2 PM), Home (for the rest of the day)
Sunday – Church in the morning (11 AM – 1 PM), Home for the rest of the day
Wednesday – Church at night (7 – 9 PM), Home for the rest of the day

All the while, the heat, the motherfucking annual solar roasting which we all refer to as “summer”, fries us to a crispy, golden brown, with glinting flashes of rain interspersed within the torture, just to revive our hopes enough to be melted down again.

Isn’t this similar to the story of ? We’re being fucking TORTURED here!

And for those who may be interested, here’s a 3D solar system made out of javascript and HTML.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-08/01/content_654311.htm

Raul is the brother of, and most likely (and just as antiquated) successor to, Fidel. Thus, any type of bureaucratic crisis in the event of Fidel’s demise is unlikely, although Raul is overshadowed by Fidel in personality and is unlikely to gain the public relations status of his brother.

It was also announced at 9 PM EST on Cuban state television.

Meanwhile, Miami (or at least Little Havana) is partying like its 2012, or something like that.

Everyone’s reading as far as possible into the matter, especially Washington, which has long been preparing for Fidel’s death.

But I wonder, though: Fidel may be alot of talk (he’s a gifted orator, btw), but for all the verbal belligerence that has constituted the dialogue between Washington and Havana (which is 90 miles south of the Florida Keys), the guy’s outlasted 9 frickin’ U.S. presidents.

The U.S. has not sent an invasion force to Cuba since the Bay of Pigs (well, those were CIA-sponsored Cuban exiles, not U.S. military personel), and, despite the fall of the USSR, has only used an embargo to starve him out of power.

So it went halfway around the world to fight against threats to Western civilization by the likes of Iraq and (eventually) Iran, but can’t invade a country – one with which it has had bad relations since the 1960’s – that is 90 miles south of the border?

And what if the undying wishes of the Cuban masses are fulfilled? What if, tomorrow, the government throws in the towel and says “fuck it, let’s do elections!”? Cuba, most likely, would become yet another piece of shit Hispano-American nation for the U.S. to fuck deep in the ass for its sugar, tobacco, and other perishable cash crops (with an elite – yes, the elite that resides in Havana – to be used as garden hoes to tend the Cuban soil for U.S. enrichment); or, the U.S. could probably have enough of those already (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, etc.).

So, that’s just what I’m wondering at the moment.

Saw it for the first time last night.