I think #ShuuichiNatori’s under-skin lizard should be an augmented reality tattoo. ‘Cuz I’d use it. #NatsumeYuujinchou #anime
I’m FB-friends with so many movers and shakers, people with interesting opinions, people who I haven’t met yet but might someday, people who are new to the structure and layout of politics, people who are (or will be, or have long been) present at the tables of power but not letting it get to your heads, friends who don’t even like my other friends (or me?) due to seemingly-minor political differences and beefs, people who’ve employed or worked with me in multiple campaigns or have yet to do so.
And all at a time and situation like this.
I don’t know what will happen in the coming weeks or months. I don’t know if I’m ready to see all of this play out, or the mess that we’ll end up having to clean up. I’ll have to be part of a generation which experienced early adulthood under such a regime as this, and we may not see anything like this for decades afterward.
I still feel young to all of this, like I’m not able to walk in shoes of any of your sizes.
But I’m glad to be connecting with ya’ll, whenever or wherever it matters.
#vent
In the UK’s local elections over last weekend, the only left-wing party to do well was the Green Party of England and Wales.
Why is Labour doing so terrible under Corbyn? Why did the Lib Dems do so poorly under Farron?
Greens under Lucas+Bartley are doing well where other center-left parties are doing poorly. Why?
Sometimes, I wish that [working-class] #WhiteLivesMatter-ed to Republicans, cuz they sure as shit don’t act like it.
Madame President in Alt-History Fiction
Hillary’s presidency will be the stuff of alt-history fiction for some time to come, including “Agency”, an upcoming novel from William Gibson. But it hinges on how whoever advised her neglected to move her to tour the Rust Belt.
Likewise, Bernie’s alt-history win of the Dem nomination in the primary hinges on a multitude of missed opportunities, bad (well-meaning) hires including Tad Devine and Jeff Weaver, unfortunate statements relating to several demographics, and failing to win over those who had sided with Hillary from the outset.
We can talk about how sparse and 2000-like the Dem primary was, and how a lack of serious Dem hopefuls in open White House retention years is a sure sign that we may lose the Electoral College again. What if more candidates – more sitting Senators, Governors and House Reps – had announced their run for president in 2015?
This past election was one for a severely weakened party to lose in its history-breaking anxiety and limited imagination.
A similar issue faces France on Sunday. An electorally-weakened Socialist Party was wiped out in the presidential election’s first round, as was a hard-left independent candidate with a boisterous reputation and a center-right candidate who wanted to repeal marriage equality. Now, a liberal banker who has never held elected office faces off against a far-right candidate who has promised to shut down Muslim immigration to France, take France out of the EU and repeal marriage equality. The supporters of the hard-left candidate, however, hate the liberal banker’s guts, and many have vowed to boycott the election.
Whatever happens there on Sunday will be the stuff of alt-history fiction for some time to come as well.
When it is not slurred as “unhealthy” or “unmanly”, anal/oral sex between men is mocked and deplored as a byword for complicity, degradation, cowardice or obsessive behavior. It has the same rhetorical punch as any gendered insult involving female anatomy.
We still have not rehabilitated our cognolinguistic treatment of the feminine and non-heteronormative. We still have yet to distance ourselves from the elevation of cishet masculine expectations.
There are way too many people who sincerely believe that Black voters are “slaves on the Democratic plantation”.
This meme, which I’ve seen trafficked by Republicans, Greens and other partisans, will draw us to your party cadre…. NEVER.
MergeVR is Lovely
I believe that the #MergeVR goggles are the best platform for cheap VR/AR headsets.
Not only are they made of stretchy, flexible Nerf foam, but they also have a pluggable hole for a smartphone rear camera, allowing for both VR and AR in the same headset.
these two features – an AR camera hole and Nerf foam – are *crucial*. No other headset maker – not even Oculus or HtC – have these features yet.
Post-Colonial Naming Customs
One of the more interesting results of colonialism are the naming customs of nations and minorities.
Filipino and Indonesian names, for example, are a melange of Castilian, Basque, American, English, Indigenous/Malay, Sanskrit and Arabic/Islamic words and customs.
Cape Coloureds’ names in South Africa are a blend of Dutch, French, English, Arabic/Islamic and Malay.
African-Americans’ names are a blend of English, Irish, Arabic/Islamic, Hebrew, French, Native American, Spanish and (rarely) Afrocentric origins.
Quite a dizzying array…
