His name is Morgan

http://hate-song.livejournal.com/60853.html

Ahh, Hate Song. Admittedly one of my favorite web-comics. The "oh so wrong" irreverent humor is such a niche thing, but this is fresh, and compelling stuff.

So I wasn't taken entirely by surprise when dolphin rape became the subject of the day's strip. But with zoo references, you know what happens next.

"Eww. Zoophilia. Dolphins are ruined for me now."

I had been planning to stay nice and quiet and not start a fight. But boy, when you see something that vacuous...I got really good and riled. Then came along subweird (whom I've disapproved of in my own way for a while) and he and princessdoodle had a bit of a cry on each other's shoulder about how they really didn't want to know about zoophilia and just how prehensile a dolphin's penis was. Oh yeah, I'm sure some of you have read that document referenced on the page.

Pfft. Why the hell was she reading Hate Song in the first place? Stupid squicks.

So I used my regular journal, no less, and let loose in my own little way.

http://hate-song.livejournal.com/60853.html?thread=611765#t611765

I particularly like this exchange:

"So...dolphins are ruined for you now. Would that mean that if I posted evidence that such a thing happened with dogs, horses etc. that they'd also be ruined for you too?"

"Yes, it would." (ZOMG, she quotes Leviticus. This, plus jumping straight to a conclusion based on two fallacies and a tautology automatically screams out NOOB!!!

At this point, I'm just...facepalming myself into the floor.

"Well perhaps you should probably just shut yourself in a box to preserve yourself from any unwarranted psychological trauma."

I could have written about three times as much but that'd really be pushing things. After a few hours, I decided to ease up on the abraisive, since poor princessdoodle was probably a decent person. But just not much of a thinker. Hm. Maybe I should have toned my language down a little bit in the process. She's only a year older than I was.

Anyhow, I think I've had enough of that. I wonder what to do with this little tidbit. Something tells me that sometime in the future, I'm going to get my ass thoroughly drubbed for standing up for what I believe in.

Alright, for now, the crisis has passed and things are truly on the mend. There's only one problem. That being I have next to no internet. Or at least, I have like a 33600 bit modem. And on this temporary dial-up connection. Which means that I'm unable to do very much, and will not be updating very much (not that many people will be actually affected by this at all). But yeah, if I hadn't written this, people just might think that the problem I hinted at in the previous post is mostly fixed.

So yeah. In other news, I might be looking to make some supplementary (and much required) cash via commissions very shortly, meaning it might actually become a reality. A somewhat sporadic reality, but hey, I gotta try nonetheless. So yeah, spread the word! Or something.

Oh, and no, there are of course several conditions since I am still a functional human being. Let's see:

a) I will not do porn. This is merely because it's well known across the fandom that the artists themselves tend to be forgotten and become vending machines. So if I said I'd draw porn, then I'd get flooded very quickly with random idiots going "OMG PORN PLZ" especially if people think I'm any good.

b) Limited queue lengths, obviously. I'll be very slow especially as my living situation is slightly unstable over the next few months. Yet I don't want to be like those artists that take 2 years and like...no contact. Actually, I should probably join artists_beware to get some pointers since breakdown in communications is kinda annoying. Anyway, first come, first serve. And patience is a virtue. Med school is consuming.

c) Pricing...well I'll figure that out later. I just feel generally uncomfortable with taking money from other people.

Any tips? I'm going to open a pay-pal or something very soon. Then maybe I can sort out just how to start getting prints etc. out or what. Hm. Actually there's a bit of thinking to do here.

Any of you who should read this journal (which doesn't constitute many people) probably already read the other journal but I have to post here for the sake of completeness.

In short, I'm a goner. As far as I can tell, this means I should probably tell mattdawolf that I will be unable to complete your requests until further notice (but hey, maybe you might get an e-mailed copy of the color by AC, if ever, I dunno). Life is...just not good at the moment. As in really not good. This is the first time for a long time that I'm actually feeling so torn up that I'm feeling sorry for myself.

This is all that needs to be said. Any more is indulgence.

It seems that there are two components to being labelled: self-identification and public identification, as is consistent with the theories of modern sociology.

But there's a leetle problem here. It's called denial. As in saying you're not something because you don't like to be thought of as something. As opposed to exhibiting behaviors that are genuinely not matching with the label you're being slapped with.

E.g. you may be the biggest troll in a public forum. "But I'm not a troll." Well, okay, you say you aren't. But everybody else thinks you are. "But seriously, no, I'm not a troll!" Well then your definition of a troll and the definition that everybody else holds of what a "troll" is must differ. Else you're just in denial because you want to have your cake and to eat it too- in having people not treat you like a troll just so you can persist in behaving like a troll, just the way you like it. Right.

On that same token, I see alot of people fling the 'emo' tag around, and this concerns me. "NO I'M NOT EMO!!!" and "Stupid fag emo" etc. Why it concerns me is not so much because of actually discernibly 'emo' people but rather that in using this tag, we're doing exactly what people did with sexual-orientation: polarising and skewing conceptions of normal or "natural" behavior by reinforcing an on-off judgmental mechanism. I prefer to use the word "whiner" instead to describe people who pine for attention in general, regardless of why they would do this. And on that note, saying you're not a whiner has about nothing to do with whether or not people decide you are one, because really the term is defined from the perspective of people's interpretation of your own behavior. So if people think you're a whiner, and you don't like that, better at least try go do something about that instead of using it as an excuse to perpetuate your own behaviors, which will only stick you further in your own rut, hm?

Let's show some honesty and initiative, people!

The topic of the day is: when furries are discovered by their parents. And their parents' reactions:

http://preyfar.livejournal.com/609636.html?view=7685220#t7685220

I've had a few hair-raising experiences regarding this, really, for a variety of reasons. But honestly, when one grows older and wiser, they learn the ways of parents. Can't take adults for granted now, can we!

Actually, while my experience with my parents and my cultural background haven't exactly been the most permissive (nor is it the most restrictive), upon reflection I must say that I really did admire the pastoral work-ethic of my tutor (yes, I did go to a private school, but NO I didn't pay the fees, we were too poor for that- go figure). Yes, admittedly my tutor and I didn't exactly hit it off to start with- he probably assumed I was an asian nerd, I assumed he was a footy fan and somewhat of a cold odd-ball as well. He just looked...ganky. I know that isn't the right word, but this is completely beside the point.

So back when I was in year 8 or so, one of my classmates (several really) were what you could label "wild". Wild in terms of the fact they actively sought to break inhibitions and buck the system. In one guy's case, this was in exposing the rest of us to a variety of interesting media- and by this I mean mainly an eclectic collection of porn, which, as we all know, is readily available to anybody who even so much as hints at looking for it.

This guy, one morning (the day of my final mid-year exams, which I think was maths and Design & Technology, i.e. like woodworking but more theory/engineering based), this guy comes in boasting that he had some "really interesting stuff" in his diary. Naturally I had to take a look (since he WAS offering to show anybody and everybody who wasn't likely to bust him for it). So naturally, then, I asked him, and he was about to show me, when suddenly my tutor taps him on the shoulder and says "let's have a look at what you got here."

Lesson of the moment here is that in the world of kids, no matter how inconspicuous you are, adults know when something is up. Kids aren't that good at being sneaky like that.

The kid (I'm witholding names here, which detracts a little but nevermind) blanched, and makes the *_* face as he hands it over. The tutor flips through the page, takes a good look, and smirks as he hands the diary back to the kid.

"You know, I would have thought you a little young to be getting into animal porn, you know?"

The kid gingerly accepts his diary back like he's about to get burnt. I can only blink.

And that was the event that has stayed in my mind ever since, and started me on to the path of realising the modus operandi of my tutor. I even said to him that I admired his sense of adherence to professionalism in my final year there...but being a smartass, when he perked and said "Oh, really?" I said "well...no, not really" :P

I did however take the opportunity to later convey that I really did mean that, though. He said he had hoped somebody would eventually figure it out.

MARRIAGE IS ABOUT LOVE

FUCK THE GOVERNMENT
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!!!

Heh, wasting ten minutes here and there and I came across the above, signed it. I mean, why not? Their goal was like, 5000 signatures but they're getting close to 20000 so I say keep it up.

It's a pretty stupid debate, anyhow, as I'm sure I've mentioned. However since the government DID make a definitive step in one direction, opposition to it should be lodged- then we should at least try to go in the right direction after that.

Forgive me if I'm sounding a bit incoherent. I'm ill- I've been working myself to the bone (har har bad medical pun) with this set of lectures- easily the worst I have ever been to because while the material itself wasn't that hard, the way it was presented made it much much harder than it should have been. Having worked for about 17-18 hours straight with one break for dinner, needless to say, I'm came down with a whopper of a laryngitis, and can't work anymore. Between mood swings and exhaustion, I'm screwed.

Also...well there's been a lot of little things I wanted to say but I don't think they're particularly significant.

So...I sat through anatomy class surrounded by cadavers and all I did was a lousy sketch:



Yeah, first bit of art I actually uploaded to this journal. And it hardly rates as art, rather, it's just a little tidbit on me practicing proportions and stuff. I normally go through with everything quite intuitively without really starting with the stick figures (well, that's wrong, I normally start like that then switch it up) but working with ballpoints (which was the only thing handy as I was perched on the sink, half on half off with not even a lap to hold my book in) forces you to get stuff right instantly, or at least work with your mistakes. For your benefit :P I went and tinted the construction lines so you can see the basic scaffold. Also note the funny horizontal lines are because the paper lining was in the way, so I removed it >D Like I said, very casual. But still looks okay, in terms of technique.

That said, I haven't drawn Aeryn properly for ages. I am working on a complete A3 pencil in which every wet strand of fur and every leaf and every fibre of bark is actually rendered, but gosh it's taking a while and I still think I'm being relatively sloppy with the stroke work. Maybe you might see it someday. If these exams don't kill me first.

NOTE: FIXED FOR THE 3rd TIME TONIGHT. MAYBE MORE EDITS TO COME!

Even though in the philosophy circles we've all moved on long ago, obviously the great unwashed are going to persist with various half-baked notions of this and that (so I suppose that it's gets to a point where people gotta get hurt, and get dirty with the people spreading the dirt...eh, sorry ^^;) A common meme that may be spreading its toxic pathogenic slime around the net is listed below.

"With homosexual behavior comes a whole host of very significant health and lifestyle risks. Whether high-risk conduct is a result of homosexual desires, or contributes to developing them, or some of both, is anyone’s guess. The fact remains that teens engaging in homosexual behavior are participating in a lifestyle that:
• reduces life expectancy at age twenty by at least 8 to 20 years
• increases by at least 500% the risk of contracting AIDS
• increases the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease by nearly 900%
• increases by 4,000% the risk of developing anal cancer
• substantially increases the likelihood of smoking, having mental health disorders (other than same-sex attraction), being the victim of “domestic” violence, and being involved in alcohol and drug abuse.
• substantially increases the likelihood of contracting hepatitis and other gastrointestinal infections
• substantially increases the risk of contracting bacterial vaginosis, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer
• has high levels of participation in sadomasochism, coprophilia, sadomasochism, fisting, and other dangerous, deviant sex practices
• involves extraordinarily high levels of promiscuity"

It seems quite a simple act to simply dismiss them as retarded, propoganda, hate-mongering. Often I see responses like "Oh I lol at this sad meme" and several people pointing out that the facts are wrong, and counter-quoting facts. But just how useful is this? This kind of rebuttal isn't even a rebuttal- it's self-defeating. In engaging on the level that the meme presents, one inevitably subscribes to the same presumptions that the original authors and supporters of the meme hold. We should instead demonstrate how first the meme should be discredited on a principle basis, formally and comprehensively, and then after this demonstrate exactly what is relevant to what.

So what I've done here is demonstrated that while some of those facts listed in an exemplar meme below are in fact worth considering and have merit, that it is in the presentation and the interpretation of these facts that such memes fall short, and ultimately, that such interpretations of facts do not constitute grounds for a moral judgment, which so often occurs.

It might not be worth much on a social level since we are already divided into factions exacerbated by the gulf of understanding between somebody who *is* and somebody who *isn't* identifiable with particular labels. But nonetheless there are those people who feel caught in the crossfire and the fog of war, so to speak, and it would do well to at least shine some light somewhere, even if this is overlooked, such that at people are not fooled into assuming that these criticisms and considerations do not exist, and that one must either be "gay and pro-gay" or else "not gay and anti-gay", or some similarly black-and-white variation of this.

( Cut for your mollificationCollapse )

I would cross-post this to dongstyle_ltd but that journal has already got a lot of anti-heteronormative rant on it, so this would be at best be a sketchy summary of what I've already written (hell I might as well do that anyway). If you want to do yourselves a favor, take this, adapt it, use the principles, tear apart other poorly fabricated arguments that purport to using statistics, and spread the word. Any jerk-off can use statistics. However, hardly anybody knows how to interpret them correctly, and most people would thus continue to persist in their practice of weak rationalisations and errors, in the belief that they are right and cannot and will not be proven comprehensively wrong. On a moral basis, we cannot do this by simply bashing at them in the opposite direction, but rather if we undercut them and acknowledge that the content of what they say is right but their conclusions are not analogous to reality, then we can perhaps transcend their ignorance. I'm fairly confident of my ability to work with the basics.

I think I'll cross-post this to gayfurries instead. Apologies to those of you who will read this twice or three times (like poor Strawcat) but please do not mention this on the dongstyle_ltd journal. Thanks.

I wasted like several hours doing not a whole lot! Well...fooling around in Open Canvas, writing some rather banal notes...and now it's like 5am. Bugger.

Warrior Monk 210 Virtue, 80 Outer Harmony, 85 Inner Harmony

You are the Warrior Monk. Virtue: You understand what it means to be Virtuous, to do the right thing, and to be a good person. While making such decisions in such hypothetical situations may be easier than they are in real life, actually choosing to make the right decisions is what gives you the potential for becoming a great person. Outer Harmony: Your Harmony with your body and how you are act in relation to the Warrior are well developed, and worthy of the Way. Perhaps some aspects are a little too esoteric or awkward for you. Maybe one day you will come to understand them fully, or maybe not. It is your Way and no one else's. Innter Harmony: You have probably already discovered what the Way means to you, what it means to be a Warrior, and how to live life. Be ever dilligent in perfecting yourself and spiritual and mental enlightment will come one day. You follow the path of a virtuous person, are well on your way to developing yourself as a Warrior physically, and you probably have found some inner peace. You are a Warrior and you know it, why are you even taking this test? Keep training.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 81% on Virtue You scored higher than 84% on Outer Harmony You scored higher than 99% on Inner Harmony

Link: The Way Test written by weltall on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Lessee...my main problems here were that I don't hold a traditional warrior's view of honor- I'm a pragmatist, and that I have a problem with the notion of dying, probably because I am too attached to others who are attached to me. I didn't used to have a problem with dying, I guess it's part of growing just a little older.

Congratulations to Taufell for being able to garner such a ferocious debate (which I felt the need to participate in) from a simple act of shit-stirring. The syntax was masterful, and the fools flocked to the bait, although having talked to the man himself, he was feeling a bit flat and sick of it all by the time, so no doubt his surpassing 100 comments will be somewhat of a phyrric victory. I guess LJ coolness through trolling doesn't feel so good after all.

More importantly, I cannot help but feel saddened. Although my stoushes were limited to a rather hostile (but ultimately reasonable) opponent, the sheer mass of judgmental, and narrow-minded commentors had me feeling crushed so much so that when Strawcat first started showing me the comments, I had to tell him to stop. Of course I do take this personally, it's the equivalent of somebody bitching behind your back when you have complete knowledge of everything they say (and they have no clue you're there, although granted, taufell is a sharp one). What hit home to me was that regardless of how justified I feel in my own thoughts and own moral framework, it seems so poorly defended by the numbers that I will never be able to endorse it properly. Given my dependency on the security of this for my career prospects, for both ideological and political reasons, it seems to me that I needed to be reminded just how difficult the road really would be. Sure, the young mavericks make the progress, but that is only because they have the strength to fight. I know I do, but these realities are sure as hell discouraging. I feel like a Pontius Pilate, but I'm sure others will think me a Judas Iscariot. If they do that, I might as well start feeling like Jesus (and then you can pretty much go look up the comments section of Strawcat's brief response to the whole mess). And with that, I hope you all had a good Easter. While I was at it, I was supposed to look up the pagan significance of the Easter Bunny...

To summarise, I guess I'm going to have to keep at the cloak and dagger stuff. I've let loose a bit too much with the security, and I think that somewhere along the track, I'm really going to pay for it. Well those motherfuckers can come for me- by then, maybe I'll be ready. Because then, I'll have nothing more to lose than that which would already have been taken from me.

Back in Sydney for the Easter break, until the 24th April (then term starts again and I get swamped with work again). Unfortunately, it seems that my net has issues meaning I have no access to any IMs apart from MSN, since my laptop is refusing to pick up any of the networks around here. This kinda sucks, since I was planning to give Matt (cyberwuffy) his corrected version of his request, but I'll find a way. Which reminds me, the printer is also out of ink and I can't print most of my notes without color, and the supplier hasn't contacted us. This also means the multifunction will insist on being a bitch and refusing to do anything until we have put in ink...so no scanning either.

Hmph, the more advanced you get the more problems you have. I only hope they get sorted out soon (or I can find a way to sort them out) otherwise I'm not going to be able to catch up on the work I have to do. Ah well.