After that last post, I realized we were probably overdue for one of these. As always with these open threads, no trolls, no MRAs (or people who bear a striking resemblance to MRAs).
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Open Thread for Non-Personal Stuff: Kitten in a beanbag edition
So I’ll start, because I have good news to share.
I work for a megacorp. Two months ago my company announced that in order to shore up its flagging share price, it was going to fire 30% of its staff. One month ago, I was told that I was going to be among that 30%. I was surprised at this, since I’m one of the best people in the team; but then it emerged that my boss and everyone else working for him had been told similar things.
So I’ve been stressed as hell and interviewing around left and right while serving out my notice.
On Thursday I had a job interview. It was for a job I would love but didn’t think I could get, and applied for mostly as a feat of optimism. I was surprised to have been interviewed at all. I was worried about it, didn’t think it went well, et cetera. I was despondent.
Yesterday, as I was leaving the office and walking to the train station, my phone went off. It was an HR person calling me about the job. Now, there’s nothing in this world I loathe more than an HR person, especially when they’re talking in a circular way in order to build up to the punchline, so I was pretty pissed off.
“You got the job,” she said. “You had some of the highest scores on our tests that we’ve ever seen. We want to give you a 25% salary bump too. When can you start?”
What a wonderful way to start a weekend.
Many congrats EJ (the other one)!
My good news is that I will be taking a vacation with my family in less than two weeks. It’ll be our first trip together in about twelve years, so we are super overdue. It’s a cruise. Should be fantastic. 🙂
I love my job, but I am also very ready to not do my job for a couple of weeks.
I have job-related news as well! Today, I’m starting my new job at a vet’s office. This is really exciting for me, since it’s the first time I’ve ever actively gotten a job in a field I want to work in: not a place I applied to out of desperation just to pay the bills. I feel like I’m passing an adulthood milestone, so I’m super anxious but also really excited.
You go, teuthic! That’s an awesome milestone.
Kootiepatra, have a great cruise. Where are you heading?
I’m sure most people have already seen it, but this story I read made me smile:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/javiermoreno/a-man-mocked-caitlyn-jenner-in-a-viral-facebook-post-and-a-g#.qpnDXmNXZK
The gist is that a man who mocked Caitlyn Jenner by posting what he thought was a photo of WWII soldiers in battle (to illustrate human bravery), was in fact in photo from an art project by a man who had survived a near fatal transphobic attack. The man who originally sort to mock Jenner did a 180 and took back everything he had said against her and other trans people.
Congratulations on all the great job news, EJ and teuthic!
I hope that your vacation is fun and relaxing, Kootiepatra.
Shit is hitting the fan in Argentina.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/pregnant-girl-was-buried-alive-by-her-boyfriend
The URL sounds horrifying, and the case indeed is, but now Argentinians have started to rise up against femicide and domestic violence which is apparently a serious problem in the country.
Luzbellix, if you want to chime in on this your words will be much appreciated.
@EJ (The Other One) – Alaska. Reallly looking forward to it.
So, I was just reading Roosh’s ‘review’ of Mad Max Fury Road. Same stuff as you’d expect, but he raised a comparison to another Charlize Theron movie, ‘The Road’. Any thoughts on that? Here’s the link: http://www.returnofkings.com/63931/mad-max-is-only-the-latest-offense-in-hollywoods-long-tradition-of-social-engineering/
So, I don’t know who did it, but a while ago on a sad puppies thread someone recommended that I take a look at the Confederation series by Tanya Huff when I was lamenting my lack of good sci-fi to read. On the chance that they might take a look at this thread let me just give a huge thank you. That series has been amazingly fun to read and I’ve enjoyed the hell out of it 🙂
My biggest regret so far is that there appears to be no good way to contact Tanya Huff to let her know I enjoyed her series. Her only bit of social media seems to be a livejournal account (who even uses livejournal any more D: ).
But yes, it’s been fun, thanks to the cool person who recommended it, and if anyone reading this enjoys action-packed sci-fi with a good sense of humor and great characters, well “Valor’s Choice” is the first book in the series.
Congrats for the job news, EJ & teuthic! And have a great trip, Kootiepatra!
@sunnysombrera Ugh what an awful, awful case. 🙁 My heart breaks for the murdered young woman and those who loved her. This needs to stop. Just, ugh.
In (much) better news, I’ve been reading about the anti-Islam protest outside the Phoenix mosque and was heartened to find out that a) counter-protesters of all creeds showed up to support the mosque, and b) some of the anti-Islam protesters themselves had a change of heart after being invited into the mosque and interacting with the community there. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/05/30/hundreds-gather-in-arizona-for-armed-anti-muslim-protest/ So some good came out of it, after all.
Oh, and I was also interested to read that the protest’s organizer, Jon Ritzheimer, is an atheist. As an atheist myself I’m very interested in bigotry in non-religious circles, and anti-theistic (or anti-religious) bigotry under the guise of human rights seems to be increasingly a thing.
And I get so tired of atheists going “atheism is not a single set of beliefs so there!” whenever someone points out that atheists can also be intolerant and bigoted. Sure, atheism is defined by a lack of belief rather than a set of uniting beliefs, but anti-theism clearly has a set of identifiable beliefs. And considering that statistically speaking the non-religious are likely to come from some of the most privileged populations in the world, I think there’s a real concern that anti-theism could serve as a disguise for older prejudices based on class, gender, and race.
@sunnysombrera thanks for the invitation, I was coming to this thread to do exactly that 🙂
I have been rather overwhelmed for the past days. There’s so much going on at the same time,and so much pain has come to light… I’ve been meaning to write an article of my own about the protest, but I kept breaking down and crying each time I started.
I still mean to write it, only… not sure how.
Femicides have been reported in mass media for a few years now, but in the past few months it became clear for everyone that it was a daily occurrence at the very list.
The murder of Chiara, who was 14 and pregnant and was buried alive by her boyfriend with the help and silence of his family, was a definitely a breaking point.
However, many of us were already planning on taking actions, mostly in small groups or oganizations.
When journalists called to the protest with the cry #NiUnaMenos (#NotOneLess), most women were already meaning to do something.
Many outspoken misogynists, men and women, joined the campaign and posed with #NiUnaMenos signs in social networks, and were showered with popular criticism. Here are some images related to the hypocrisy of the police, ministers and “sowbusinessmen”.
The original protest was mean to take place in front of the Congress, but soon people started creating new gathering points covering every main city (and many smaller cities) and province in Argentina. Around 200.000 were present at the congress, and I’ve heard over 2.000.000 protested in the whole country. Protest also took place in main cities of Urugay, Chile and Brasil.
“Everyone” was there: women’s and social movements, political parties, artists, journalists, and lots and lots of families, most of them with young children. There were many handcrafted signs, and some children held signs with their murdered mother’s name. It was heartbreaking.
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo were present among the people, not on the stage though, and I feel the need to mention them, because their fight and work during the last dictatorship became the backbone of the human rights movement in our country.
They have been working with women to stop violence since the return of democracy, and have worked along families of women who were murdered or kidnapped for sex trafficking, including the mother and daughter of Marita Veron, an iconic case of kidnapping which took place over 10 years ago and is still missing, and the family of Wanda Taddei, who was set on fire by her famous musician husband, after which many other men decided to kill their wives in the same way (it was as horrifying as it sounds). Both families, among many others, were also present at the march.
Right after the protests, the national line to assist women jumped from 1.500 daily calls to 13.000. Also, the Justice System decided to suddenly organize a National Registry for cases of violence against women (which we have been demanding for the past 5 years, ever since the national law against violence was passed).
So, there are already visible consequences, and I’m hopeful it will keep getting better. We are all very aware that there’s still a lot of work to do.
I’m really hoping all the misogynist assholes (especially rapists and murderers) are shaking in their fucking shoes.
I also hope very hard this will help build a Latin American alliance in order to fight violence against women. There are already regional Feminist meeting every two or three years, but I think it’s time to take the organization to a new level, in order to coordinate protests and actions in all countries. I am convinced it’s impossible to reduce violence in any given country if we don’t work together through Latin America.
We still have to wait and see how things developed. It looks like it’s getting better, but it has stirred so much pain from my past, and from everyone’s past, that I can’t feel joy without also feeling a lot of anguish.
Anyway, here’s an article from the BBC with some pictures in it.
And finally, here is Evita’s mural in feminist purple light during the protest(many groups gathered under this building and then marched to the Congress):
Woops, it should read “at the very least” and “showbusinessmen” up there.
Nevermind.
@Andrew: I didn’t bother reading all of it, since it was so ridiculous… Like, Pretty Woman is an example of an anti-male movie where women are portrayed as superior to men? Richard Gere’s character saves Julia Roberts character who’s portrayed as unable to save herself from her tragic life, FFS! Sleeping with the Enemy – he even writes that there’s this “good guy” who always saves “the damsel in distress”, but he still uses it as an example of a movie where women are portrayed as superior to men? Because since the Good Guy in that movie is a “beta orbiter” it somehow doesn’t count that he always saves the woman who can’t save herself?
Whatevs.
And then he starts talking about the Road as if it portrays some forbidden truth – that women give up in the face of the apocalypse. Eh, there’s this one family where this one woman commits suicide whereas this one man carries on. There’s no need to interpret this movie or the book it was based on as saying that women in general will commit suicide if there’s an apocalypse whereas men in general will carry on. That’s just Roosh’s interpretation.
Roosh also seems to think that the Road is a better movie about a post-apocalyptic world than Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome because the former is more realistic. Eh… they’re different genres, FFS, the latter isn’t supposed to be realistic. Plus, if we’re gonna talk realism, there’s some problems with the movie The Road as compared to the book it’s based on realism-wise. People are supposed to be starving but look fairly well-fed… Whereas all of nature is dead in the book, we see a lot of live vegetation in the movie, which makes you wonder why no one is doing any farming.
I could go on, but as I said, didn’t bother to read any more of his post.
For those who speak or understand (or wish to learn, why the hell not) Spanish, here’s a song by Chocolate Remix (a local lesbian duet):
@Luzbelitx, thank you for your informative post. I hadn’t heard about this horrific case, though I’m familiar with the issue of femicide. I hope this tragedy does mark a tipping point in Argentina.
@Andrew, I’m sad to say I read the whole review. How does Roosh manage to type with his head wedged so firmly up his arse? We don’t need a post-apocalyptic wasteland to show us the true nature of women, just look back through history or watch the news and you’ll find plenty of examples of women’s bravery and selflessness. Has he heard about all the women snipers combating ISL? Probably not, because his head’s up his arse.
Btw, I haven’t seen The Road, but glancing through the wikipedia page it looks to me like Theron’s character kills herself after months or years being holed up in their house waiting to be murdered by intruders, I can sort of see how that might lead some people to take control of when they die, it’s not cowardly.
@Pussy
“And considering that statistically speaking the non-religious are likely to come from some of the most privileged populations in the world, I think there’s a real concern that anti-theism could serve as a disguise for older prejudices based on class, gender, and race.”
This is a source of good natured ribbing when I confess to one friend I follow some atheist communities: “How can atheists have a community if they define themselves by NOT believing something?!” they exclaim. It’s all good, we both have friends who are atheists and some of them are the most moral people I know.
And then there are the other kind. The arrogant, holier than thou(Oh the Irony!), middle of the road libertarian, flirting with social Darwinism, with a disturbingly tolerance of misogyny and yes, come from a place of privilege. I remember being shocked Thunderfoot was spewing misogynistic crap. Thunderfoot? I had to check for myself:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2014/09/03/i-watched-the-latest-thunderf00t-video-so-you-dont-have-to/
There seems to be an overlap with several subcultures: libertarians, skeptics, atheists, assholes, the result being many persons in the first three groups use it as an excuse to be an asshole to anyone they don’t this is as clever as they are.
@Luzbelitx
That sounds like some progress to me, and I am wishing you and your country all the luck I can muster. Change will come, there is no place that is protected from it. It’ll be hard but well fought.
@PPT
On a lifhter note. Of course atheism isn’t a single set of beliefs because, you know, we don’t have a set of beliefs at all. 😛
I forgot who asked me if I still play the forst Borderlands and I’m on my increasingly erratic phone so I don’t want to go looking, so here’s my reply @someone:
Not really. It’s a great game and I’d go back to it in a second, but I am but a lowly console peasant. We have a PS4 in our bedroom and I/we will play the remastered 2/presequel, but – alas – no on one.
We still have a copy for the PS3, but that’s in the TV room and has become my older children’s Minecraft machine. PS+ has had some wonderful indies featured recently and keep downloading them to spur at least the 11-year-old (Papa & Yo, etc), but Minecraft still holds sway.
Papa & Yo seems really heavy for an 11 year old to play.
I hang around in atheist communities a lot and yes, we definitely have a problem with misogynist assholes; and with assholes of all kinds.
There are some low-rent atheist thugs out there like Thunderf00t (alias Phil Mason) or Justin Vacula, who are merely unpleasant but do nothing more with it than that. More worryingly, people like Sam Harris are tremendously popular and manage to muster a veneer of respectability over their prejudice.
A special shout-out has to be given to Michael Shermer, who is both a charismatic and intelligent human being and also a rapist. Many people ignore the rapist bit because of how charismatic he is: after all, rape is committed by bad people and he can’t be a bad people.
Finally, one must mention Aron Ra, who’s kind of an asshole and an enormous islamophobe, but is very progressive on women’s rights (even for the wrong reason.) I like him but many people don’t.
For anyone who’s having a bad day, a pig eating ice cream:
@pandapool – For the actual theme of the game*?
Sure.
I haven’t played it *eyes virtual stack of games that I haven’t yet gotten to*, but I was under the impression that it’s more allegorical with nothing explicit. That leaves it as a still emotionally complicated game filled with ambiguity, but I don’t think that that’s necessarily a bad thing. That’s what many of the tales we used to tell to children were, after all, before so much was sanitized – more digestible allegory for some of life’s harsher aspects.
I think – depending on the kid, of course – 11 can be a good age for an introduction to storytelling as a way to process difficult subjects.
But it is heavy.
We also have Hohokum and bunch of other prettiness.
[*For anyone reading who’s not familiar with the game: You’re a young boy with a large monster companion who can help and care for you, play with you, or fly into a murderous fit of rage depending on what’s been eaten/the circumstances. So, Papa & Yo = a young child and his parent with a substance abuse problem.]
And PaPo & Yo*, sorry.