Embryo of Philosophy

My kitty is adorable! Yes, you need to know know this. She likes to sleep on the scratching post/cat furniture that my brother got me for me birthday. At first I was worried that she wouldn't get much use out of it, since she's declawed in the front, but she seems to get a kick out of pawing at it.

I also thought that she might not play with the catnip mice that I bought her, but she likes those two.

Besides, her scratching post, her favorite place to be is in my closet, lying on the blanket sat her litter box sits on. GO figure.

In other new anime_manga is having its second Prompt Battle! Whoo! Prompts are being accepted until Sunday, October 4th, so go request.

This week is Banned Books Week. I like to celebrate by reading banned book. This year's choice is The Great Gatsby. Yeah, it's a little embarrassing that I haven't read it before, but it's shocking and shameful what I have yet to read.

If you want to read a banned book to celebrate, it won't take much effort. One of the top ten challenged books for 2008 was And Tango Makes Three, a children's picture book about two male penguins at the New York City's Central Park Zoo who who hatched an egg together. I'm reluctant to use human words for non-human animals, but let's face it, they're gay penguins. You can imagine how well the book goes over with the religious right. So make a statement: read a picture book.

Go here for the ten top challenged titles, which includes His Dark Materials and Scary Stories. You can also go here for more information. It's absolutely ridiculous, some of the books that have been banned and challenged. Also, people who want to ban To Kill a Mockingbird based on racist language are really missing the point. One of the main points of the book is the evils of racism. How is supposed to do that without showing that racism? And people who want to ban Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry for the same reasons are missing the point even more. It's about a Black family in the 1930's who interact with white people. Should we sanitize history by removing hateful language and actions? What a good way to hide the fact that white people have been racist fuckheads throughout American history. Or should books about Black people that take place prior to 1980 or so just never be written? I really don't think that's the solution. (I suppose you could try and write a novel where the Black people never interact with white people, but I'm not sure how possible it would be. Plus, wow, there's a limitation.

Also, people who want to ban any book even mentioning LGBTQ people (or penguins) as "not age appropriate" make me want to kill things. But you could guess that.

Things that are not fun:

School Curse you school, you are the very bane of my existence. Thank you to the people who gave me advice on bullshitting papers for class. I appreciate said advice very much, I assure you.

I have to stop taking seminars. They're interesting, but they are way too much freaking work.

It's cold! Normally, Colorado doesn't let the date determine its weather (70 degree Januaries and frigid late Aprils), but this time it got word that Fall was starting and got cold. I hate it! I can't manage to dress just right. I'm always too hot or too cold. It's supposed to warm up over the weekend though.

So, after much angst, I finished my fic for matrithon. Or so I thought. I thought my prompt was "Hunith: memories." It turns out that it's "Hunith: secrets." Yeah. You know, normally I'm obsessive about checking and rechecking my prompt to make sure I'm doing it right. The one time I don't, this happens.

Well, I still have a few days, and more fic is always good, right? Especially minor character fic.

Still, dagnabbit.

Something that is fun:

springkink is open for claiming. Lots of good prompts! Bleach, Count Cain, Saiyuki, Yami no Matsuei, Merlin, Revolutionary Girl Utena, all the stuff that my flist loves! I've claimed four prompts, which is over my usual self imposed limit of three, but I just couldn't help myself. I'm still tempted to nab a few more of those Riff/Cain prompts. Please do it so that I don't have to.

Now if you'll excuse me, I clearly have fic to write. (And on a deadline!)

I haven't posted about Iran, mostly because I don't really know what to say. I don't have anything insightful to contribute that hasn't already been said.

Because I'm dumb, all I can offer is a selection of links cobbled from my friends list. If nothing else, I can try to make more people aware. I have to say something, because my silence is too damn loud.


A summary of current events in the rallies.

Why you should care and Why I will not let it go (and neither should you) both by one_hoopy_frood. The latter has some "what can I do to help?" links.

There's a live post going on here at ontd_political

There's a move to get Google to change their logo in order to show support.

Apparently, Saturday is going to be a global day of protest. There's information here. There's going to be one in Denver, and luckily, I am not working on Saturday. I encourage people to go. Here's a handy flier.

( Cut to spare non-fandom people )

I've been putting off this post for too long.

On May 28th, two of the hosts of a Sacramento morning radio show called Rob, Arnie & Dawn in the Morning spent over half an hour encouraging and promoting the physical and emotional abuse of transgender and questioning children. No, seriously.

( Read more... )

Well, it feels good to get that off my chest.


EDIT: Carl's Jr/Hardee's and Verizon have also pulled their sponsorship! Yes!

EDIT AGAIN: Well's Fargo is also no longer advertising on KXRQ!

EDIT TAKE THREE: Nissan's pulling their support as well!


RETURN OF THE EDIT: AT&T and McDonald’s are gone too! That's ten big name corporations so far.

( Cut to spare non-fandom people )

So, first order of business, ship_manifesto is having an OTP voting battle. You should go vote. Specifically you should go vote for Cain/Riff and Haruka/Michiru. Why? Because I said so, dammit! I offer slightly more convincing reasons here. Haruka and Michiru have a comfortable lead, but as of this post Cain and Riff are being slightly beaten out by Katan/Rociel. The match up seems appropriate, given that they're both from Kaori Yuki manga. Unfortunately, Angel Sanctuary is the more popular manga, which is a shame, given that I maintain that Cain/Riff is very much like Katan/Rociel... but better. Cain has his issues and he can be unkind to nearly everyone, including Riff, but he's not abusive and manipulative like Rociel.

There are lots of other couples to vote for. (Shunsui/Nanao! Juubei/Kazuki! Rogue/Gambit!) hulamoth, they don't have Guy/Marian, but they do have Mulder/Scully.

But that isn't really the point of this post. The point of this point is that I've signed up to post recs for Yami no Matsuei over at crack_van during the month of June. This brings me to a question

Poll #3773 Crossposting
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Should I crosspost the recs here?

Ticky box?

I came a cross a very interesting article the other day. Apparently, Keith Olbermann offered to make a donation to Sean Hannity's charity of choice, if Hannity would undergo waterboarding. Hannity didn't take him up on the offer, but another Fox commentator did.

The article is also under the cut. It's short.

( Olbermann's offer to Hannity off the table )


I think this clears things up. People who have been waterboarded consider it torture. And one of those people is a probably-Christian white guy, so his opinions actually count, unlike those Islamic brown people. (EDIT: Er, that last sentence is heavy sarcasm. I think that's obvious, but...)

I think it's time to round up members of the Bush administration and change their minds. And plenty of people in the current government. (No, I am not serious advocating that we round people up and torture them. I'm a Liberal.)

But a good percent of the American people need a wake up call too. Slacktivist AKA Fred Clark is my favorite blogger. He's a liberal Evangelical Christian (no, seriously) who writes about economic inequality, civil rights, and how very crazy the current Evangelic movement is in the U.S. His running critique of the Left Behind book series is one of the most fascinating things on the internet. His latest post is about a recent poll stating that 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants said torture of a suspect could be often or sometimes justified, while 40 percent of the "religiously unaffiliated" held the same stance. Now, while the "religiously unaffiliated" stats are nothing to brag about (Almost half? My god.), they're a damn sight better than the white evangelical Protestants. (For white, non-Hispanic Catholics the rate was 51 percent, and for white mainline Protestants it was 46 percent.) I find this both horrific and darkly amusing. See, plenty of people have defended religion by saying that we need it to define morality. This implies that people without religion must be somehow less moral. But, as it turns out, in the United States, being a white Christians makes you more likely to be a horrible person. So, the next time someone tells me that we can't have morality without God, I'm going to tell them to shove it.

Ok, I know that I promised a non-fandom post, but, uh, just a little longer. ( *SOB* All my non-fandom friends must hate me.)

There's only a few days left to sign up for Remix the Drabble. Sign ups end Monday night.

You want to come play. It's all the fun of a remix, but you only have to write one hundred words!

There are lots of fandoms to choose from, but right now I'm the only one offering Revolutionary Girl Utena or Count Cain/Godchild. So, if you write these fandoms, you should join so I won't be all alone. That would be sad. I might cry.

Go forth!

First, I thought "But why?" Then I thought "Well, why not?"

You know, I was thinking about how neat it would be to have a mini Groundhog Day scenario, in which I got a day where nothing counted. I could do whatever I wanted, then when I woke up the next morning no one would remember, and I would relive the day again.

Then I realized that I would probably just spend the day goofing off on the internet. Sad but true.

I'm finally making progress on the Merlin/Morgana fic that I've been trying to write. It's amazing how much easier it is to write a story once you realize what it wants to be. I thought it was supposed to be sparse and minimalist, no more than a double drabble. Turns out that the scene I was picturing wanted to be more than two hundred words, and it wanted to be just one scene in a longer fic. The more you know!

I have been having some very strange dreams. There was the one where I was vaguely disconcerted by the possible expired tofurky in my fridge. (Maybe it was planning something, I don't know.) Then there was the one I had last night. I was living in a condo right across from a Boulder restaurant called The Sink. My mother came over to visit and was really angry when she saw what a mess it was, because as it turns out, it was the condo I'm living in now that belongs to her husband. I could be forgiven for not knowing this, since it looked completely different and was a completely different location. Anyway, I ended up having a nervous breakdown in a bathtub (which for some reason was in the kitchen) in which I began to believe that all the characters that I write fanfic about were actually real. Then my mother came in and was all, "Do you really have to have a nervous breakdown now?" so I tried to stop... and then I woke up. I believe that dream to be a mix of a desire for hamburgers, writing fanfic late at night, and recently cleaning the bathtub.

I'd tell you about the dream I had while I was napping earlier this evening, but any dream after which one wakes up and thinks, "But why was the bestiality there?" is probably not a dream which should be shared with the public.

I am currently amusing myself with McSweeney's Lists. I particularly like Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parentheticals That Cost Me Marks on My Thesis, Less Popular Alternatives to First-Person Shooters, The Lesser-Known Slogans of Political Moderates, James Bond Films for the George W. Bush Era, and Rarely Used Parenthetical Statements. Also, for b_hallward, Classes My Top-Tier Law School Should Have Offered as Warnings About the Profession.

La, la, la, I think that I'm done.

EDIT: Also, Things That Will Destroy My Heterosexual Marriage Long Before Gay Marriage Ever Will. Rabid dogs with chainsaws for tails: Indeed a serious threat to marriage.

Why do people continue to Not Get It? Today's post isn't about stuff that's jaw-droppingly rage inducing, but still makes me go "Argh!"

Yesterday, in my lesbian lit class, we were discussing Stone Butch Blues. Since the book deals with Diné/Navajo culture and transgenderism, it's no surprise that the topic of of third genders within Native American Cultures would come up. The problem came when one woman used the word "berdache." While this is indeed a word used to describe non-gender-conforming native peoples, it's an insulting word, first used by European conquers to insult the people they were destroying. Also, using berdache as a blanket term ignores the multitude of differences across tribes. (I really hate it when I hear something described as a "Native American custom." Which tribe are you talking about? Cheyenne? Arapaho? Iroquois? Mohawk? I demand details!) When I brought this up, I was all but attacked, with the woman insisting that the work should be used for convenience's sake. The professor tried to cool the situation and made a note that perhaps someone should research the history of berdache. Which is exactly what I did. I looked in Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg and Sex Changes by Patrick Califia, and found confirmation for my statement. (I would hope so, considering those books are where I got the information in the first place. But it's nice to have straight textual evidence.) I fully plan to bring this up tomorrow. The professor better have meant it when she said that someone should look into this. I do my research! And my research does not support the "Yay Western Imperialism!" viewpoint.

By the way, a blanket term for gender nonconformity within Native American Cultures that actually used by native people is two-spirit. That's respectful. Of course, if you come across someone who doesn't like the term, you shouldn't use it to describe them. (I shouldn't have to point that out, but.)

Later the same day, in my Christianity and Democracy class, I encountered a different time of privilege. We were discussing Christianity and Democracy by John De Gruchy. Of course, it's severely difficult to discuss the problem knowing that it's highly unlikely that anyone reading this has also read said book. To give you an overview of my issues, I'll just put up my response paper that I wrote for the class.

( Read more... )

All right, there you go. Little more than you strictly needed, but you understand my issues.

There are times when something seems incredibly clear to you, and you're shocked to find that people disagree. This happened in class. Two people thought that De Gruchy wasn't privileging Christianity. That's right, saying that an ideal society would be modeled after the Holy Trinity has nothing to do with concept of Christian supremacy. One woman couldn't see what the problem was. "If you like his ideas," she said, "why does it matter how he expresses them?"

I wonder what it would be like to go through life seeing absolutely nothing oppressive about saying that people not believing in the Christian God is responsible for society's ills, or that God should be a "necessary working hypothesis with regard to science, ethics, or art." It's classic Christian privilege. (Of course, it's possible that the woman wasn't a Christian. There will always be people who defend oppressors without being them. Look at the sheer number of sexist and misogynistic women. But I find it more likely that she's Christian.)

I'm reminded that in the same class, someone expressed the belief that the presidential inauguration wasn't explicitly Christian. Multiple preachers, swearing in the president with his hand on the Bible, and reference to God in the speech, and it's not Christian! People don't seem to get that the concept of Christianity as default in our society is problematic.


But now we reach our last point for today. And this point deals not with other people's privilege, but with my own. (So much harder to deal with.)

I'm not sure how much any one person on my flist has been keeping up with Racefail 09. I know that there's a lot that I've been missing. If you want to catch up, rydra_wong has an extensive (and impressive) collection of links.

A post that really stuck with me is this one by seperis. To quote:

Speaking for myself, sitting here in comfortable privilege and mulling how much new material I have to read, I'm ashamed that in this, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain and I've profited immensely by way of clicking links like some progressive online course. And I have to be grateful, and sickened by it.

This is so true. And it's not just this one instance. It seems that every time there's an explosion of racism in fandom, I get to learn stuff. I find fascinating, worthwhile information from brilliant people. People of color? Well, they get stepped on and hurt.

Does that make me a bad person? No, of course not. Privilege 101: Having privilege does not make you a bad person. But it's something I need to keep in mind. Something that frustrates me.

That said, the least I can do is plug some lj communities that are trying to make a difference. 50books_poc challenges you to read fifty books written by people of color over the course of year. Or more than a year. Or read fifty short stories. Or keep count of the books you read that are written by people of color. Or just read books written by people of color and post reviews. The point is to read work by people of color. I want to fulfill the original challenge: fifty books in a year, but right now, with my school schedule, the idea of being able to finish a book for fun seems like a distant dream. But I'll make the effort. I read What I talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami earlier this year, and right now I'm in the middle of The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall.

Also, Verb Noire is a small press publisher dedicated to celebrating "the works of talented, underrepresented authors and deliver them to a readership that demands more." They're currently accepting submissions. Check them out!

Ok, I should probably get started on tidying up the condo, just a little.

It's not often that i really and truly make the 0_o face, but after the past ten minutes (Ten minutes!), it's the only logical reaction.

First it was a a website for Christian t-shirts. Christian t-shirts are an attempt to make Christianity "cool." (I wasn't aware that religions needed to be cool, but what do I know?) For a while, it was very popular for t-shirts to have imitations of well known products replaced with some Christian-like text (for example, a shirt with Budweiser logo, with text that read "King of Kings" instead of "King of Beers), that may have gone out of style by now. I don't think that it's impossible to have a well done t-shirt with Christian theme, but you're not likely to find one at this kind of site or stall. I'm used to these shirts being silly or foolish, but sometimes... When I saw this one, I actually exclaimed out loud. It's just so... tactless isn't a strong enough word. I very weird thing about this specific type of Christian is the feeling that I accord their religion more respect than they do.

If that doesn't horrify you as much as it does me, I have something else for you. Have you ever thought that semen has been underused as a cooking ingredient? No, you probably haven't. As well you shouldn't. But some people did, and that's how Natural Harvest - A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes came into being. I really do think that I may be scarred for life. You thought Rocky Mountain oysters we bad. They've got nothing on "man made oysters." Or how about, "Fresh tuna and fresh semen are a splendid food combination." "Creamy Cum Crepes"!

I like to think that I have made your day a little more surreal.

Claims are open at both Spring Kink and Sick Fic Fest. All right, yes, claims have been open for a while, and I'm just telling you now. Because I suck. But there are lots of good prompts. So get your kink on, or write about bad awful people doing bad awful things. Or both! Write, damn it! (But, honestly, no pressure.)

Prompts I've taken for Spring Kink:

Godchild, Alexis/Jizabel: punisher/nurturer games - He'll wrap you in his arms, tell you that you been a good boy / He'll rekindle all those dreams it took you a lifetime to destroy (Rough draft is finished.)

Trigun, Vash/Meryl: Scents - "I just can't get him out of my mind." (Started.)


Prompt I've taken for Sick Fic Fest:

Muraki - Only this one holy medium brings me peace of mind (Really looking forward to this one.)

I haven't writing, and I've been depressed about it. Looks I may be back in groove.

I wanted to post this yesterday, but I was working.

So, as many, if not most, of you already know, yesterday was the anniversary of Mathew Shepard's death. It was also National Coming Out Day. I did not come out to anyone, but I would have had the topic arose. (At this point in my life, all the people who really need to know that I'm queer have been told. Now, it's on a need to know basis.)

I really don't think that there's much I can say here that hasn't been said better by others, so this is mainly a gathering of other content. After all, what should I say? I'm not eloquent enough or smart enough to put all of this into words.

bitterfig has a really eloquent post here.

An article from 365gay:

( Why the Shepard murder was different )

If you choose not to read that, at least know this: "[Barack Obama's website] says: 'Obama will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Section.' There isn’t even a 'Civil Rights' section on the McCain site under 'issues,' much less a statement of support for specific hate crimes legislation."

The Bilerico Project has this to say:

( Matthew Shepard found, let's find the others now )

Hey, want to hear some good news? No, seriously.

( Connecticut’s Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage on the 10th )

Honestly, I'd rather see a stronger hate crimes act, or better housing and employment protection, but this is good too. (And I think that my thoughts on the way marriage takes center stage in the fight for GLBT rights would be better saved for another post.)

This is a few days old, but Jack Thompson has been disbarred.

For those of you not in the know, Jack Thompson is a conservative Christian, now ex-lawyer, who has engaged in many crusades against whatever has offended his sensibilities, such as violent video games, The Sims computer game, and the Florida Bar Association. (Seriously. To quote Wikipedia, "He said that the bar was engaged in a vendetta against him because of his religious beliefs, which he said conflicted with what he called the bar's pro-gay, humanist, liberal agenda." And he wanted a Florida judge to declare the whole Association unconstitutional.)

Thompson has many words of wisdom, such as, "The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people, Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does." His sheer ignorance is astounding. To quote him again, "Islam promotes the killing of innocent people. The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. ... That's a core essence of the religion. ... Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels - not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition." Besides being ridiculously bigoted, that's just plain incorrect. To quote the Quran, "And do not dispute with the followers of the Book ["Followers of the Book" refers to Christians and Jews- Veleda] except by what is best, except those of them who act unjustly, and say: We believe in that which has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and to Him do we submit." There's also "Verily! Those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and do righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." It's true that there are also Quranic statements that advocate a more adversarial stance, but honestly, how many religious texts don't present their religion as superior to all others? None in the Abrahamic religions, that's for sure.

Some of the things he says leave me confused, and, well, almost like a voyeur. Quoting Wikipedia again, "He also claims that the PlayStation 2's DualShock controller 'gives you a pleasurable buzz back into your hands with each kill. This is operant conditioning, behavior modification right out of B. F. Skinner's laboratory.'" I mean, a "pleasurable buzz?" Into your hand? Just how sensitive are your hands, Jack? It's not a vibrator. (Though, that gives me an idea for a controller/vibrator bundle pack. You'd hook everything up to the console, and when you scored a point...right, I'll stop now.)

I also like (well, for certain values of "like") his reaction the Bully video game. "We just found gay sexual content in Bully as Jimmy Hopkins makes out with another male student. Good luck with your Teen rating now." The ESRB was sort of like, "Uh, yeah, we knew that when we rated it Teen. It's not like it was hidden content." (That's a rather heavy paraphrase.)

But, enough with the boring stuff. I know what you're asking. You're asking, "Just how disbarred is he?" There are some answers here My favorites include:

"Jack Thompson is so disbarred he isn't even allowed to read Shakespeare." (Hee, dis-Bard. Sorry, it's my favorite.)

"Jack Thompson is so disbarred, he can't even file briefs in his underwear drawer."

"Jack Thompson is so disbarred he can't even practice the law of gravity."



You know, I'm actually still on this vibrator/video game. I think I need one for my DS. It would give shouting "OBJECTION!" in Phoenix Wright an extra oomph. And when Franziska hits you with her whip....right, sorry, I'll just be going now. Forget we ever had this conversation. Please.

Today's armchair activism opportunity is brought to you by Tyson Foods.

"Hunger is a serious problem in the Bay Area…
• Nearly 1.2 million people in the Bay Area (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties) are living near the poverty line, at risk of going hungry. According to census figures, these people are making less than $26,000 for a family of 3.
• The California Budget Project estimates that a family needs to make more than twice that amount - at least $53,000 - in order to make ends meet in the Bay Area. People who can’t get by often give up food to pay for vital expenses like medicine, or fixed expenses like rent.
• 50% of the people Bay Area food banks serve are children – and many live in working poor families."

Food prices are going up, and government help for needy families is going down (after all, to the republicans, if a government is actually serving its people, it's clearly to big).

How is Tyson helping? For every comment to this post the company will donate 100 pounds of high-quality protein (up to a total of 200,000 pounds) to the six Bay Area (that's in California) food banks.

How can you help? Comment on the post! Seriously, it takes, like, a minute. Don't you love it when doing good is so easy?

Let's make this a feel good post all round, shall we? I have some serious problems with Google, politically speaking. They worked with the Chinese government to censor and restrict what the Chinese people could search for. That's bad, to say the least. But this latest statement from them...well, I can only approve and applaud it.

( GOOGLE takes a position on California's No on 8 campaign )

Go Google. More power to you.

So, we're going to do this in order of most to least important.

How do you know that your campaign has become nothing but a cesspool of despicable dishonesty and mudslinging, proving that the only way you can win is to lie about your opponent? When Karl freaking Rove says that you've "gone too far." That's right, Karl Rove, hypocrite extraordinaire, sometimes referred to as "Bush's brain" believes that McCain and his campaign have taken the dishonesty to ridiculous levels. And he's right. (Wow, I just said that Karl Rove is right. Is that a sign of the apocalypse?) McCain's ads have accused Obama of being a child molester (no, really) and the Antichrist (no, really). He's misrepresented, oh fuck that, he's lied about Obama's voting record.

Can anyone in good conscious really vote for this piece of slime? I know that I can't. (Well, I couldn't have before, but you know what I mean.)

Oh, because I don't want to be one of the two people who hasn't linked to this: Tim Rice's brilliant take on how racism and white privilege is influencing this presidential race. (I mean, you know, besides the really obvious.)

So, people are posting links to the DVD Commentary Challenge, and I thought I'd follow suit. Because I'm a sheep. Baaa. Baaa! I opened up all my work for commentary here.

It's nice that you don't have to agree to give commentary in order to offer your stories. I could never do the commentary part. I mean, I might be, no, I'd probably be wrong. And then everyone would be all, "How could you miss that/think that? That wasn't the point at all! You must be very stupid." And they'd be right. And then ritual suicide would be my only option. Yes, it would happen exactly like that.

Though, of course, I'm certainly not saying that anyone would necessarily be interested in commenting on my stories. It's terribly unlikely, really. I understand this. I mean, I'd just thought I'd put them out there. It does seem arrogant though, doesn't it? Don't get me wrong; it's not arrogant for anyone else to offer their stories. Just me.

...I should probably end this here, before I get really worked up.

(There's no need to comment to reassure me. I do know how ridiculous I sound. And this post is just a minuscule bit tongue in cheek.)