The Alegria Allegory

This just in: I want to watch Kooza. You should too.


I've watched the DVD of Cirque Du Soleil's show "Alegria" at least 6 or 7 times now. Partly because it has amazing music and acts, partly because Francesca Gagnon is freaking ADORABLE, and partly because there is a bare thread of a storyline or the appearance of related events running through the whole show. It's not a cabaret like Zumanity and it's not a difinitive story like Varekai but there's something there tying it all together. This story line has resulted in hours spent at IHOP tables at 3 AM trying to decipher the underlying meaning of the show.

Is it about power and a crumbling kingdom?
Is it about the homeless youth struggling to yell loud enough to have their cries heard at the top of the heirarchy?
Is it about conflict between religion?
Is it about generational conflict?
What is the purpose of the Singer in White? Who is she supposed to be?
What about Tamir and Little Tamir? Who are they supposed to be?
Should I know something more about life coming away from this show that I did when I first started watching it?

The thing I love most about all of these questions is that, in the tradition of Cirque, there are no real answers. You can watch it again and see something different. And again the next time, and the next.

This time I took away the idea that there are few things better in life than watching someone who is utterly batshit crazy run around and set a stage on fire using a Fire-Knife.

fuckitty fuck fuck

This is my personal blog so I can title my posts whatever I want.
If you're looking for my cyberfeminism blog try http://arachnetwopointoh.blogspot.com

The gist is I'm still confused about my cyberfem class and didn't know we were supposed to read ALL of the readings. Are we? I don't know.

I'm in that lovely state where I'm kind of terrified and panicky. My bipolar has been getting a little worse of late. Meds and all of that are still the same. It's just that with all this stuff about my gender and the PCOS and having gotten the final dose of Gardasil which has resulted in some rather excruciating pain in general life feels awfully teh suxorz.

I'd have to argue the worst part of it all is that I'm so crazy close to sucessfully finishing the semester and I feel like I'm falling apart. I would like to not feel like this plzthx. Right about now I would love a cigarette but my lungs are shit to begin with so it strikes me as a somewhat bad idea to take up smoking again.

I will be working graveyard shift tonight and am not really looking forward to it mostly because I feel very sick and confused. At least I'll be making an extra $0.40 an hour tonight. That should help considering comcast jacked up my bill out of no where.

Fun fact: I was the first girl to ever request to work the graveyard shift at ICT.

Next week: Online dating and why it sucks

This just in:

I don't understand WebCT courses AT ALL.

So I'm sad to say I ended up dropping my cyberfeminism course because I didn't understand how it was supposed to work and I don't know how to ask questions. It's disappointing but I tend to roll that way. I'll keep up my blog as a personal one.

Not gonna lie, I was totally intimidated by the fact that I don't know what "feminism" is or "feminist theory" for that matter. I hope some department somewhere picks up the cyber-activism concept and start teaching courses about it. There needs to be a major. Seriously.

If you are hardcore into the ideas of cyber-activism I highly recommend "Taking On the System" by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga who is the founder of the Daily Kos, one of the most popular blogs on the net. It gives basic outlines how to make arguments and win them and generally wage activist web-wars in general. It's much better than I make it sound.


This just in Part II:
I don't understand paragraph breaks or grammar rules in general anymore. Stay in school, kids.

Techtosterone?

*awesome techno-woman link of the day*
GenderIT

My Rant about My Lappy: The Lappia Beta Coupe

I hate Vista, just like everyone else in the world. Absolutely hate it with a fiery passion but I usually enjoy that it gives me just a little bit more information and control than either Mac or XP does. There is, however, a problem with giving me this control. I don't know enough about Vista or computers in general to be able to really successfully fix anything. I just know enough to royally fuck them up. It's kind of amazing. In the first two months I had this computer I had to wipe it and completely re-install Vista at least TWICE.

Today I was given the ultimate insult. I was shown the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. I didn't even have time to read the text on the screen so I have no idea what happened to trigger the dreaded BSoD. Based on my wholly uninformed opinion I'd say registry errors of a rather Hardcore kind. We're talking XXX registry errors. Not that I know what a registry error really is, but still.

The point of all this is: I need to get my computer fixed but there's a small problem. I don't agree with the way technical support is done. I've worked in Technical Support and customer service with Apple computers before and consistently encounter two problems.

1. Most people prefer to work with technical support agents who are men because they feel that men are more adept at mechanical things and logic and will therefore fix your computer faster.
   
   My main argument against this is that, as a woman, I achieved the highest customer service satisfaction rating of anyone, man or woman, in my department and it wasn't just about talking people down and keeping them happy either. I managed to resolve technical problems 94% of the time so I knew what I was doing. Why then, was I often treated like I didn't know what I was doing?
   
   
2. This question brings me to my second point which is that a majority of technical support agents are males and inherently treat female customers as slightly inferior and assume they don't know what they're doing. I expect some people to argue that I'm biased and have no basis for this opinion. On the contrary, I worked full time on the floor of my call center and as my customer satisfaction was so high I was asked to help train other employees in how to improve their customer service satisfaction. The single biggest problem I identified was a lack of respect for the customer especially in the cases of male support agents and female customers.
   
   Is it wrong to have to explain to a customer service agent that they work for the customer regardless of age, sex, location, religion, or supposed intelligence?
   Because it should be.
   

I want my computer to work but I don't want to have to fight with the people who fix it. Maybe I'll just buy a new one. Again.

Welcome to the Jungle

I would like to send a shout-out to all the 3rd graders at Gladys Wood Elementary
make that a shout-out to all the folks from W S 450: Cyberfeminism!
Welcome to the world of Leftisting!

In case you hadn't guessed, I like exclamation points and dislike grammar and fight with spelling- and often lose.

I'm a government major who still hasn't gotten over how awesome the 2008 election season was. I am very, very progressive in my politics but have a strange place in my heart for the 2nd amendment and think people in the army should be respected and recognized for their humanity. I thought they were ruthless, heartless pigs until I read "My War: Killing Time in Iraq" about an army grunt deployed to Mosul, Iraq who starts blogging about serving in Iraq.

My first real exposure to blogs and blogging was the blog feature on Myspace at least 5 years ago. I used it to post random wibblings and angst-filled poetry. I kept this up until I switched to Facebook during my senior year of high school and essentially stopped blogging as Facebook doesn't really have that feature.

My blogging was sporadic until I took English 211 and our special topic was 'Zines and Blogging. We dedicated the second half of the semester to building up and using blogs as a way to express ourselves and our opinions in a valid and somewhat public way. I loved it.


*Notes on my actual blog*
I apologize in advance for poor grammar or spelling. I have dysgraphia which makes it difficult for me to sucessfully express my thoughts while still obeying the rules of grammar and punctuation.

As I have had this blog for several years and used it as a personal blog some of the back-posts may have coarse language in them. I apologize if you are offended.

I am aware that because I have interests including gender and sexuality some of my material may not be "appropriate" to some people. I would ask that people try to keep a sex positive attitude and an open mind.

I am also keenly aware that not everyone will agree with my politics, I welcome a lively debate including all viewpoints but ask that you not flame me or anyone else. If you do flame your comments will be deleted.

Other than these things I hope you enjoy!

Let's Rock!!

Butch Hair Uber Alles

Listening to "California Uber Alles" by the Dead Kennedys after getting an awesome haircut.

After having fought with my gender of late I was having a really tough time understanding where I fall in the gender/sexuality spectrum and it was really depressing me. I felt really happy identifying as just a "lesbian." Well, I suppose not happy so much as comfortable. But after reading some of the articles in my Contemporary Sexualities text book I began questioning what I am.

Am I bisexual? Am I a gay man trapped in a woman's body? Am I a straight male in a woman's body? Am I butch? Am I femme?

Why does gender have to fall into this strict dichotomy?

Unfortunately for me my copy of "My Gender Workbook" has been eaten by the vortex of life and I won't get paid 'til the 15th. Even then, I still have to pay my cable and electric bills but I digress.

So I'm having a horrible gender/sexuality crisis and my hair is in my face so I get my hair cut by my favorite gay stylist in the world. The only hair stylist in my entire city who understands what I want when I say the word "butch." Previously I've been scared to go very short but this time I said fuck it and hacked a bunch off and by the time it was over I had this super butch faux-hawk and strangely felt relieved and happy.

It's amazing how profoundly a haircut can affect how one feels about one's self.
I'm so much happier with who and what I am and love my new hair. It's a strange sense of calm and excitement. You should try it.



Yeah, I took Myspace style pictures but whatever. I was all excited and there wasn't anyone else around to take the pictures for me.

Note to self

Methylphenidate is a stimulant and will keep you awake if you are dumb enough to take it at night.
Hello walls! I will be staring at you now.

Also, if you haven't heard it, you really should listen to the Manic Street Preachers cover of Umbrella. It's lovely.