I adore Rob. His attitude toward games is very much my family's. Not that I watched tonight, but I vaguely intended to, solely because of him.

re "go hug auntie whoever" It's the "you are under orders to pretend to feel affection" thing that I get from it. As a child, and now. Why do that? Why do you care? I like hugs from people who genuinely want to give me a hug. Not so much from people who have been told they're supposed to.

forced to perform like a trained seal of baby love and hug all those semi-strangers goodbye and call them Auntie and Uncle Whoever.

This does sound like I'm going totally 'zilla like too early.

Dude, not at all. I realize I'm possibly influenced by spending the whole weekend with my father, but the actual wedding ceremony is kind of the most important part of the whole thing, you know?

Megan E., you are very pretty.

So had my usual argument over religion with dad. He thinks religion is evil. Me, I think it is neutral, a tool in the human toolbox, me lacking that tool, but it can be used for so much disaster and hope. Humans can use any tool for good or evil or neutral. Anyway, that lead eventually to my reading Farewell to Manzanar and my horror at it as a preteen. And how teenage me'd sworn to never accept that again. And now there is Guantanamo. And I've failed. I've written letters, but it doesn't redeem my teenage horror. And it really pisses me off.

I'm cranky and impotent.

So had my usual argument over religion with dad. He thinks religion is evil. Me, I think it is neutral, a tool in the human toolbox, me lacking that tool, but it can be used for so much disaster and hope. Humans can use any tool for good or evil or neutral.

DH and I have the same arguement.

I am on your side. Was your dad in a place wher ereligion was forced upon him?

and on a completely different note

[link]

code monkey dance

I had that same experience at a similar age, but with the Holocaust. I'd never even heard of the Japanese internment camps until I saw the TV movie of "Farewell to Manzanar," when I was about 13. I got into researching the Holocaust when I saw a TV movie (hmm, a recurring theme) about the capture of Eichmann a year or two earlier, and was horrified, but couldn't imagine it ever happening in the world again.

Now, I'm not only shocked by Abu Graib and Gitmo, but also the immigrant camps in Texas where families are being held with very little rights, including education for the US-born children living with their illegal parents.

I guess I've never had an unwelcome hug forced on me, nor kids I didn't care about asked to call me "Auntie ita." Which is just as well, because I won't answer to it. "Tita" only.

I'm cranky and impotent.

We shall call it 'crampotent'.

Dad was kicked out of catechism(?) in the Lutheran chruch when he got in a theological argument with the priest which he was winning.

Me, I'm all about finding common ground. "OK, my lack of belief is as unfathomnable to you and your belief is as unfathomnable to me" where can we meet? I may have internal judgements, but I keep them internal because they don't do anything to move understanding and acceptance forward.

I mean, how the fuck do you try to talk to someone, gain some commonality, some sense of respect , if you start out with "you are so wrong"?

I mean, you may be wrong, and me, right. But I ain't winning anything if I antagonize you first. And my logic can't argue against the heartfelt belief. Faith doesn't play with logic. I get it. I have PMS, I GET IT.

But I CAN engage it. And make it work for both of us.

I mean, you may be wrong, and me, right. But I ain't winning anything if I antagonize you first. And my logic can't argue against the heartfelt belief. Faith doesn't play with logic. I get it. I have PMS, I GET IT.

I heart sarameg. So very much.