Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

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Groundbreaking Blogological Procrastination

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Another day, but not another dollar.

The Global Rich List is neat. I stole it from Wanting Seed. I only have to make 50k to be in the top 1% globally. I can so do that.

Laughing Meme has done me the delightful favor of linking to my last post with the words “groundbreaking epidemiologic footwork,” and endeavored to further my investigation of the p23s5 meme. File under: Best. Link. Ever.

RexSavior is a Grad student at Rutgers studying Library Science, and he’s interested in the relationships between weblogs and other daily activities, including journalism and scholarly communication. Or something. Honestly, i was reading this page while doing situps, so i didn’t absorb that much, but it struck me as the kind of thing that makes me want to be in grad school. I’ll be re-reading it later. Linked to and hosted by the impeccable Six Foot 6.

Somehow we went to nights with frost to mornings in the seventies. I need to unearth some t-shirts and put the/my ass in class.

You’ll Get Older Too…

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A great ed-op on teenagers and first amendment rights. It made me think about how different it is to be a teenager now than when i started out as one ten years ago … i never had to carry the weight and memory of a Columbine or a 9-11 on my teenaged shoulders, my daily interactions shadowed by their historical prominence. I never had metal detectors, or school uniforms. I can’t imagine being suspended for writing a story with a hostage situation or for stating that Barbie is a Lesbian.

Today i spoke at our Accepted Students day, in front of almost three thousand people — high school seniors and their families. My remarks were mostly pre-scripted, and included the indisposable cliché of “I sat in your place five years ago, and blah anxious blah scared blah never even been kissed, et cetera so forth yakkity yak.” I’ve said it before, and i’ll be saying it again tomorrow morning at 11:32. Today, though, today was different. Today, halfway through my the sentence, i realized how significant the statement is — i have been there, in their place, and i lived to tell. I can never go back to the idle dreams or the blithe naivete.

I am a scant seven weeks away from being a college graduate, and i have never had the occasion to feel all that old during my college experience, but today drove home how i have become more similar the parents than the students; the former raptly nod along to my points in sympathetic agreement, while the latter view me as a mutant over-achieving neo-adult freak out to unfairly raise the expectations they will be held to. The students gave me those huge, blank, sheep-like eyes; how can i help but condescend to them a little? They don’t realize quite what they’re getting into. How could they?

After opening remarks Aim & i spoke to a small group of Communications majors, and we were bubbling with incredulous laughter the entire time as we realized that we were the nearly-adult examples that were being held up to aspiring students. The funny thing is, we so totally are; as we spoke about our oft-derided Senior Projects i saw parents’ eyebrows raise so far as to meet their hairlines while students glazed over as we glossed over what we consider to be the banal details. Two thousand pictures. One hundred thousand dollars. A visual commentary on the depressed economics of her hometown. A complete script of materials and suggested best practices for the committee to use as necessary. To the parents it’s thrillingly real. To the students, it’s just another obstacle to leap.

Afterwards, the two of us tiptoed through a conversation with one particularly aimless student and his family I told them “Drexel is a school where you have to reach for what you want. If you want a cookie cutter program, don’t come here.” Aim and i ran into them later as they slunk out of the room and towards the parking garage, their Drexel dream discarded. The uber-positive cheerleading Admissions Counselor in me cringed at losing a family. Yet, an hour later, i don’t feel bad. When i was seventeen i wanted the most perfectly cut cookie for my college career, and i didn’t wind up getting one. Instead, to mix metaphors, Drexel let me know that i could make my own cake. And eat it too.

So, woe is to them, those poor beleaguered teenagers with their restricted speech and their college searches. If i am any indication, they cannot possibly realize what lies in store for them, and they will not realize how good they have it until it’s too late. How could they ever be made to understand: the joy is in the process.


The joy is in the process.

I just hope they have the sense to have realistic goals or to pick a school with a co-op program, cause otherwise they’re gonna be fucked.

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Also via Jillmatrix: A new Pennsylvania law on adoption that carried amendments that would have eliminated domestic partner benefits for state employees was stripped of the amendments shortly before the bill was passed on to the Senate by the PA House of Representatives earlier today.

The amendments, sponsored by State Rep Jerry Birmelin (Wayne), were introduced under the guise of shoring up the state’s defense against the nation’s current rash of gay civil unions. Brief background article here. This article does a good job of explaining what the intent of the actual bill is regarding adoption.

Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to oppose Birmelin’s amendments. This article is the most comprehensive one i have found so far. I know many people in Philadelphia who are currently covered by domestic partner benefits, though this bill will only effect state employees. It also prevents unmarried hetereosexual couples from applying for the same benefits, and states “A spousal-equivalent relationship shall not be recognized in this commonwelath.”

From the first article: Addressing the House following afternoon caucus meetings, Birmelin let his colleagues know that the topics of same-sex marriage and health benefits “will be coming back in another day, perhaps in another form.” I will endeavor to follow Representative Birmelin’s actions; if he presents similar amendments in the future it is up to voters to let their opinions be known to their local representatives so that they can oppose the bill with confidence.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107963719088926085/

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It’s queer news roundup!

Have you heard about the North Carolina parents who want to transfer their daughter to a different school because her school library carried a child’s book called King & King featuring a gay prince looking for his mister right? The MetaFilter Thread on the subject links to the CNN article, which seems to be carrying the same text as all the other ones i’ve seen so far. It’s one thing to ask that your daughter not be exposed to the book, but the family has now taken it upon themselves to withhold the book from the library so that other people cannot check it out. Lovely.


But, wait, there’s more… new Bush appointee Scott Bloch slashes rights for government employed homosexuals. Apparently, sexual preference isn’t a “protected class” under the law. To be fair, the current act covers conduct “which does not adversely affect” performance; that doesn’t specifically nod to sexual preference, but its quite a stretch to suggest that it has a negative effect on a work environment (though the stretch will be made if it’s isn’t prohibited by law). Someone in the Metafilter thread amusingly points out that this means bosses are free to fire hetero workers who constantly talk about their sex lives or who have annoying pictures of them kissing their spouses displayed prominently. Heh.

Decisions on these and other queer-rights issues effect friends and family members that i love very dearly, and rulings on these and other civil rights effect everyone — not just the people who feel their immediate ramifications. Please support civil rights for all with your vote in the remaining primaries and the November election. And, remember, you can get all of your queer news fresh off the griddle from QueerDay, founded by one of my favorite people ever, JillMatrix (who is apparently blogging again!).

Addendum: Many, many congratulations are in order for JillMatrix, who is in possession of one of relatively few same-sex civil unions in the country! See her re-inaugural post on her trip to San Francisco, and some pictures of the proceedings.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2004/03/107963499730702597/