Connie, the rain's good news for you, right? Did you post something about fires near by? I hope it helps with that.

It's a good soaking rain, not too heavy but steady and has been going on for a couple of hours now. It may not put them out, but it should make a dent in some of those fires.

Of course, now we get to worry about mudslides, but, god, it smells so good out there.

Excellent--the paper says it will post my sister's rebuttal this weekend, hopefully unedited. And they backhandedly apologised for the article itself, saying that it got published because someone else missed a deadline.

Which is...way to stand by your content.

But they have an "all sides of the argument" policy, so sis gets heard. Seen. Read. You know what I mean.

Each morning Grace tells me that the new house is fun.

You have no idea how tickled and happy that makes me... Okay, you probably do. But the definitive answer is "a lot".

I had a weird moment in a debate about Prometheus. I was saying that the characters were stupid for a big deal they were hired for, and the rebuttal was "They're working for money. They're mercenaries. That doesn't go hand in hand with quality like a government mission would."

And I'm all whuhuh? When did that stereotype get changed around? When did "I do this professionally" get to be a bad thing?

I mean, shit, there are good people in both public and private sectors, but the idea that mercenaries are bad at their jobs (well, bad enough to excuse the idiot ball they were tossing around the whole movie) was just weird. Neither being free market nor government sponsored is applicable here.

Not that I've seen the movie, but I have heard many people complaining that "I'm just in this for the money" makes no sense as an excuse to be doing a shitty job. Last time I checked, corporations generally try to spend their money on people who don't suck.

Right? They were being paid a LOT. One would assume they were the good mercenaries.

ION, I'm really bummed I can't sell this footage, because even though it's not our copyright, it's so incredibly cute.

I haven’t seen the movie, but if I were a mercenary, I would be extremely concerned if my colleagues weren’t doing a good job looking out for my back.

Man, my attention span for youtube ads is getting smaller and smaller. I assume those ducks were cute, but I'll save that discovery for a little bit.

I just saw that the following was tweeted at Willow Smith:

“Willow Smith, you’re 11 years old. Nobody needs advice about ‘being themselves’ from you. Call us back when you get your period”

Now, that's clearly rude, and why the fuck are you being such a shithead to an 11 year old girl? Is that the sort of fight you take on with your day? Verbally beating up on a pre-teen? Dude. Self respect.

However, where I saw this related was within the context of sexism and racism. Uh, isn't it clearly ageism?

I mean, it's not like I haven't read people telling Bieber to shut up and go take some hormones or something. What is the characteristic of this attack that sets it apart as sexist and racist?

Oh, and can someone get my stomach to stop hurting? It's really messing with my plans for the day, which include working, thank you very much.

What is the characteristic of this attack that sets it apart as sexist and racist?

Because minorities and women have a long history of being silenced and dismissed?

Because minorities and women have a long history of being silenced and dismissed?

I thought ita was questioning it because they're only criticizing her age, not her race or her sex.

well, they are her sex "come back when you get your period" is pretty sexist.