When I'm having slow working days, the solution is not to guilt about it. The solution is to work slowly!

This was a total revelation to me today.

The world's greatest kids' show is 40, and it's hard for me to believe it's older than I am -- it was so crucial to my childhood, how could it possibly have existed when I wasn't around? Coco just posted a link to the scene where the grownups remind Big Bird that Mr. Hooper died, and I cried a bunch... implausibly, I feel like I remember the emotions surrounding Mr. Hooper's death even though I was only three. For slightly cheerier memories (well, not the first one) here are some of my favorite Sesame Street songs:







One of the skits I thought was the funniest when I was a kid:



And one of the many skits that only got funnier as I got older:

I love the dark folk sensibilities of these beautiful songs from Sesame Street. I'm quite sure that a lot of my own musical tastes were developed at least in part because of that show.

And because I loved him so much, here's a little shout out to Mr. Hooper.

For anyone interested in a tearjerker, this is how the show dealt with Mr. Hopper's death. When Will Lee died (the actor who played Mr. Hooper) the show chose to have Mr. Hooper die as well and use it as an opportunity to teach their young viewers about death. According to Wikipedia, the show was aired on Thanksgiving day so that children could watch with their parents and talk about the issue together.

I haven't seen the show in many years (apparently it's changed pretty drastically), but I can't imagine half of the things that they addressed on Sesame Street when I was watching it even being acknowledged today. I am very grateful that when I was a kid artists and activists, and not marketing experts, were in charge of children's programming.

ETA - Sesame Street also dealt with disability in a really amazing way, which is to say they did so matter-of-factly. They had a long-term deaf cast member, and kids in wheelchairs and with Down's Syndrome who are interacted with like every other kid on the show. I credit that (and a program at my elementary school) with my almost life-long hatred of the word "retarded".

Megan sent me a wonderful package last month with vintage knitting booklets and a skein of beautiful multi-stranded yarn. I haven't yet done anything magnificent with the former, but the latter is now this scarf. Thank you, Megan!

I absolutely cannot concentrate today. I was doing all right earlier, when I was on campus for meetings and tracking down stuff at the library, but then I came home and started tackling Mt Laundry and now I can't do anything. My brain won't go and I feel guilty about it though I should really cut that out. I want coffee to sharpen up, but if I drink it I will be up all night and then I will be even more tired tomorrow. Silly brain!

• 20:34 The Flying Without Fear app for iPhone is pretty nifty, though the voice of the dude doing the guided relaxation is HILARIOUS. #

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So I am thinking of going LJ silent for a while except for Besizened and the occasional comment here and there. I have been feeling more and more raw and on display when I post anything on the internet, let alone personal stuff. When I put it out I need so much more back than what I can get here and then I am less present for you guys. I view my livejournal as something that is fun, that I write in sometimes, an easy way to communicate with a big group of people. Primarily I use it to look at a few peoples journals and generally about 5 people respond to my big life things. Which I totally get and is cool. However, 4 of those people live in the same city as me and I would much rather be putting effort into one on one communication, even internetelly. I feel so completely disconnected on here and I think I need to change that. I have kept this around for longer than I had planned not only because I found FA and it reboosted my love of LJ but because I am in love with someone who I am out of touch with and knowing that he reads this is some way of communicating. That isn't fair to anyone else to not have me 100% invested. So, F-list, I think my plan is to put all of my entries on private and be around here much less but more present in email and phone and in person ways. This is probably a temporary thing while I adjust to working and winter, hence the private entries instead of just deleting everything. If you had posted something in my comments that you want but can't find let me know and I can send it to you. I will keep everything open for the day and private everything when I get home.
I also realized that I view LJ as one whole group of people. So I will get comments from someone then comment on someone elses LJ and feel like there is balance there without thinking of it on an individual level always. The internet is weird and hard for me this way and I'd just rather do more quality than quantity. Unfortunately I am not being so great at both right now. I spend too much time here and on fbook. Time that I could be reading, talking on the phone with you, hanging out with people, making things, sleeping, writing in my paper journal (which grounds me and which I haven't written in, save for last night, for months and months.)
Tell me whatcha think? And find me on email at farawayonfire@gmail.com. You can also call or text me at 778-867-2370.

Find out how your congressperson voted here, and find their contact info here.

Dear Congresswoman Schakowsky, Thank you for voting for health reform and AGAINST the Stupak Amendment. I am horrified that in this historic moment, the House chose to curtail women's reproductive rights. Thank you for standing for all women to ensure that abortion remains not just legal, but affordable. I am so disheartened today. I am a young woman who is relatively healthy and currently able-bodied, but who has many friends and family members with serious medical needs. Health care reform is the most important political issue to me right now, bar none. I know people who have gone bankrupt after becoming ill or disabled. I want to celebrate the House's passing of the health care reform bill as a victory, a way of finally righting the injustice that is our current health care system -- but I cannot celebrate, knowing that women's rights have been, once again, thrown under the bus by centrist Democrats. Thank you for standing for what's right and for not betraying women. I don't know if this amendment can be stripped from the bill or weakened in some way, but if it can, I encourage you to do everything you can to make that happen. Congresswoman, thank you for fighting the good fight. I am proud to say I voted for you. Sincerely, me

"When your first reaction to tragic events is to consider how they might support your politics, it's time to go for a nice long walk."

Truer words were never spoken.

• 12:46 Smearing hand sanitizer over the outside of the bag of pretzels I just bought is probably overkill, yes? But I WANT to. #
• 12:52 @thekateblack I considered it, but it occurred to me that a guy who spits into his shirt might not mind getting hit by a stranger's vomit. #
• 12:53 Moments ago I was fatshionista-spotted whilst buying my lunch. Oh internet, you find me wherever I go! #
• 13:16 @varouna I can honestly say I've never been creeped out by being approached like that. It may yet happen, but thus far it's always been fun. #
• 13:17 @queerfatfemme The sum total of the Lulu responses was that it's just okay for what it is. & sometimes the quality can be unpredictable. #
• 13:18 @sparkymonster No, though that WOULD have made me easier to spot! #
• 13:20 Oh nice, the first segment of NPR's Fresh Air from yesterday is about Precious. I want to see this movie so bad. #
• 13:22 RT @jsmooth995 wow, and we thought Colbert was gully for taking Bush on: bit.ly/1ftl8Q #
• 13:33 Everyone's conflicted, but that can be productive and thought-provoking. RT @Newsweek The problem with ‘Precious’ bit.ly/ARvTo #
• 13:35 @hmsdilettante No! Get out! Seriously? I must get one of my Canadian friends to snag a copy! #
• 13:53 @electricpenguin @KateHarding I can't WAIT for Cosmo's "How to look like Gabby Sidibe" issue! People are just clamoring for those tips. #
• 14:27 @Eclipse We are of like minds! I especially love the second one and am thinking of getting it for New Year's, since we have plans for once. #
• 15:44 I love my hairstylist, I really do-she's the only stylist ever to not butcher my difficult hair-but she is ALWAYS running late. Frowny face. #

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As mentioned in a filtered post earlier, since I first began to boost my workout routine a couple months ago, I've had a couple little menstrual oddities, mostly in the form of unexpected midcycle bleeding/spotting. I am aware that a change in exercise can result in such things, and after a conversation with my mom in which she confirmed that the same thing has happened to her, I wasn't too concerned. Though my cycles are curious by some folks' standards, they're quite predictable to me (keeping a menstrual journal helps -- no, seriously, laydeez, if you're not keeping one you seriously should, and I don't mean that in a moonchild hippie LET'S LOVE OUR VAJAYJAYS way, but in a for-your-health-and-personal-knowledge way).
( Cut for gore. Well, not really. But at least one person on my flist is put upon by my menstrual storytelling, so this cut is for you. )

Because this little anecdote inspired me to look it up again, please do consider checking out the Beautiful Cervix Project, which now has more pictures! (That link is not recommended for people averse to flesh, mucus, indeterminate white substances, or blood. It is also probably the most NSFW link ever in the history of links.)

After all of the planning and the worrying and the hustle and the bustle around Kimberly's visit to Winnipeg since I first brought it up, how did everything work out?

Pretty relaxed, actually.

( Hello, City )

As you can tell, the visit was laidback, but fun, with the fact that it ended and the absence of Kimberly's husband Scott as the only parts which made me a sad panda. I really hope that his work commitments won't keep him away next time.

As you can also tell (and as I expected), a lot of the trip involved comparisons between many aspects of Canadiana and Americana, most of which I haven't even mentioned yet--everything from the dominance of Kijiji over Craigslist in Winnipeg to the nature of provincial equalisation payments to how companies sneak in a maple leaf on their Canadian logos (the middle of the McDonald's Golden Arches, the apostrophe in "Wendy's," and so on), just in case you forget what country you're in when you're dealing with them.

There was less talk of home redecoration than expected--mostly discussion of potential changes to the apartment rather than actually shopping for new decor or furniture. Kimberly and I seem to be on the same page of ideas, but we never devoted an afternoon to this sort of thing as I'd originally imagined.

On a(nother) side note, I had the rental car for an extra day on either side of the visit, and it becomes immediately clear in that sort of situation how much more oriented Winnipeg is to its entrenched car culture than it is to cyclists, pedestrians, or frequent users of public transit. I was pretty much aware of this already, but the difference in practice is astounding.

All in all, I'm happy with my first attempt at offering some Canadian hospitality here in the new(ish) place, and I can only hope my next opportunity goes at least as well. :)

• 12:33 Blogged: Contexualizing the invisible: How people are talking about "Precious" bit.ly/30jkFp #
• 19:28 Today's gym horror: runner next to me hocking loogie after loogie INTO HIS SHIRT. I bolted before I vomited on him, but it was a near thing. #
• 19:30 I don't care how hardcore a runner you are, you can take two minutes to step off the treadmill and get a damn paper towel. #

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I totally missed Secrets Monday just by not paying attention. So, let's make it Secrets Friday.

We all know the drill, yes? Comment, anonymously, with a secret or a thing or whatever. Respond to others or whatever.

No IP logging, nothing like that. Let's go.

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

I hadn't planned on doing this before seeing the movie, but today I posted some thoughts on the contextualizing (unconsciously or not) of the fat body in Precious.

I actually have an open letter to Kirstie Alley (did ya hear?) in the pipeline, which I'm hopeful I'll finish tomorrow.

• 09:21 Have any of y'all ever used Lulu.com for self-publishing purposes before? Was the experience awesome, or riddled with fail? #
• 09:41 @vactress Thanks so much! I didn't know Amazon had a POD service too, I'll check it out. #
• 09:42 @TheFatSays Awesome, thank you! #

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The thing that terrified me more than anything else in my childhood wasn't a ghost, or a monster; it was a Disney World attraction called Mission to Mars.

Mission to Mars was an attraction (not properly a "ride") in WDW's Tomorrowland from 1975 til 1993, which speaks to both the simple design's continuing efficacy and relevance as well as WDW's resistance toward fixing anything that wasn't irreparably broken for as long as possible. The experience took place in a circular theater with circular projections screens on the ceiling and floor. The seat cushions could be filled with compressed air to simulate the g-forces of takeoff and turbulence. That was it! There was no next-generation ride system, no interactive touchscreens, no costumed characters. You went in, you sat down, and you pretended you were taking a rocket to Mars. Between the recorded narration from your unseen Mars tour guide and the ship's captain, the "viewscreens" showing you images from outside the rocket, and the additional screens imparting information about space travel (this ride was developed with help from NASA!), it was surprisingly convincing.

I was fine with this until the meteor storm. Luckily that happens toward the end so I only had to be UTTERLY CONVINCED THAT I WAS ABOUT TO DIE for a couple of minutes. Even after we left the show building I remember trying to tally my certainty that I had narrowly avoided being killed in space, with the apparent truth that I had been in that same building the whole time. I must have been four, possibly five when this happened.



In 1995, Mission to Mars was replaced by ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter (AE, for brevity) and if you managed to see the new show before its life was cut tragically short, you would understand why it was doomed from the start. Though Mission to Mars enjoyed an eighteen-year residency in the same spot, AE would be shut down in 2003 after years of complaints from the parents of traumatized children (who evidently brought their kids on the ride in defiance of the multitudes of THIS RIDE IS COMPLETELY TERRIFYING DO NOT BRING CHILDREN ON IT ACTUALLY MAYBE NOBODY SHOULD RIDE IT signs all over the building and the queue. The parents who didn't heed the warnings were nigh-universally outraged with being faced with choices of attractions and were not able to mindlessly trudge through every attraction like drunk cattle. (In irony approaching the sublime, it is told that then-Disney chief Michael Eisner saw the attraction in previews and proclaimed it not scary ENOUGH, which led to them working on it for an additional six months to bring it up to Eisner's standards of horror.) And thus, AE was not long for this World.

The short version is (as Disney attraction backstory and theme can go on forever in its attention to detail): you're attending some future science convention (I know, nerd points right away) and meant to be watching a demonstration of new transporter techonology. The preshow features my favorite animatronic ever, a furry alien named Skippy who is used to demonstrate the transporter and for whom things don't go so well. Incidentally, the animatronic robot guiding this part of the show was voiced by Tim Curry, and if that alone doesn't immediately make you long for the chance to experience it, then I just don't understand you.

After the preshow we leave Robot Tim Curry and move on to the show itself, an early version of the multisensory ride experiences that are becoming the norm in theme parks today. As in Mission to Mars, you were seated in a circular theater, although now you are also restrained with harnesses, so no matter how freaked out you get you're trapped in your seat. The harnesses and the seats move to simulate the events that take place in pitch dark when the hungry evil alien (i.e., not the adorable Skippy) escapes, as he will inevitably do, and the shoulder harnesses were equipped with jets to spray jets of air or mist at you (to simulate the alien's being right behind you and ostensibly about to chow down on your tender human flesh) as well as individual speakers to likewise terrify you with sound effects.

This ride opened in 1995, when I was a senior in high school, and the first time I experienced it was during Grad Night (look upon the benefits of living so close to a Disney theme park and weep, my loves), which would have made me 18 years old. But when the alien smashes the glass separating us from it I WAS FUCKING TERRIFIED. The difference, of course, was that by this point in my life, I enjoyed being terrified.

Video of AE is difficult to come by, as the ride took place in almost total darkness. There is a version filmed in night vision here, though it really fails to impart the awesomeness of this attraction. You can get a better idea of how it went from this short promotional trailer:



And this is a very shaky recording of the preshow, but you can see my beloved Skippy:



So, what happened after AE was sent to that big carnivorous-alien playground in the, uh, sky? They installed Stitch's Great Escape, which kept the basic format but along with the fear also removed all the teeth and excitement from the original AE experience. This version is actively hated by a lot of folks who were big fans of AE, but also by parents with small kids for whom the ride is still too damn "scary", successfully mounting a compromise in which nobody wins. If you want to see the Stitch version, check YouTube. It is too depressing for me even to contemplate.

President Obama scritching his dog's belly in the Oval Office. Well played, puppy, well played.

• 11:18 @polianarchy Ha! Thanks. I was wondering why I got another comment on that post out of nowhere. xoxo #
• 16:09 Turns out the oft-threatened Kirstie Alley reality series is a go: bit.ly/25awir Start getting excited about the future recaps now. #
• 16:11 Today I learned that iTunes support is unbelieveably terrible. Thanks for nothing, Apple. #
• 17:26 At what point in the past few years did Swiss Miss establish a monopoly on the retail hot chocolate industry? It's Swiss Miss or nothing. #
• 09:26 Saw a building on fire in Cambridge from Storrow this morning, and my first thought was "I should check Twitter!" Not the news; Twitter. #
• 09:28 Dear Maine, I never liked you. Sincerely, Lesley bit.ly/3YbMuG #
• 09:33 I strongly dislike having to share the institution of marriage with hateful, despicable bigots, but I don't take it to the ballot. Sad day. #
• 09:58 @thekateblack Heh, I got one of these from you in button form and put it on my jacket today. It's topical and poignant! #

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