Friends

So, since I've moved, I go to work by train, which is good as it gives me time for reading, etc.

Except that tonight, I managed to get onto the wrong train, and arrived at the storage station. *facepalm* Thankfully, the train driver was very helpful, and managed to find a colleague that went back to Lyon and could leave me at the station before the last train. :D

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Hope everyone here in the U.S. is eating enough to keep them going for a week or two. After all, as my roommate told me today, it IS against the law to not overeat on Thanksgiving Day, right? So keep that American spirit going, guys, and eat until you pop!

I have a few more pics for the NC17 crowd coming up next, so check back after you get another slice of pumpkin pie, okay?

Enjoy!

But, um, mostly to the Americans amongst you! ;D

Thanksgiving.

I was just informed that mom and her roommate were expecting me to do the Thanksgiving turkey. Along with pumpkin pie (crust from scratch) and my cheesecake.

Whut-?

This is going to be one of those weeks, isn't it?

Good thing it's 9am.

Here's a fanfiction heart attack.

Midway through my sga_santa fic, the borrowed laptop suddenly freezes.

To all my dear friends celebrating Thanksgiving I hope you have a wonderful holiday!



"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you', that would suffice." ~Eckhart von Hochheim

( WriSoMiFu Day 26 - Everything I Needed to Know About Life, I Learned from Harry Potter )

I thought I'd share my recipe for sweet potatoes with everyone. They are always a favorite at our table.

( Apple Pecan Sweet Potatoes )

Hmm. I'm not finding a couple of the blog posts I'd spotted yesterday, that aren't related to the adult privs checklist but were about child agency and the concept that kids, acting like kids, in public, is something the public should just deal with--kids are people, and age-appropriate behavior isn't something that should be kept out of sight of nonparents.

Some of these have fascinating comment threads. And by "fascinating," I mean "soaked in privilege and offensive as hell."

Related but not necessarily connected posts:
Nov 3, Noble Savage: On Child Hate and Feminism "Participating in child-bashing is participating in the oppression of a vulnerable group. … admitting that motherhood went from overrated to undervalued in 40 years flat isn’t something many of us want to acknowledge."

Oct 23, Look Left of the Pleiades: People who dance between tables "Having a need for age-specific support should not make anyone any less human."

Apr 23, Have A Lovely Time: I'm sorry, does my children's presence offend you? "HOW do you cope when your arrival leads to an immediate and sharp intake of breath from the other customers?"

Aug 8, Syracuse.com opinion blog: Discrimination against special needs is unacceptable "They had just as much a right to patronize that restaurant as anyone else. They deserved to be welcomed with respect and kindness. This was not the case." (Does not mention whether younger children without disabilities would be equally accepted.)

Adult Privilege Sound-off:
Nov 24, Dr. Helen: Your right to bring your screaming child on a plane ends where the rest of our ears begin. "If a kid does not understand how to act in certain settings, teach him or her or don't put them in that setting until they are older. The world will be a better (and quieter) place."

Nov 24, Tim Cavanaugh at Reason: No Child's Left Behind "here is (very unscientific) evidence that spanking is poised for a comeback" (With special bonus racism in the comments!)

April 8, Guardian: There comes a time when you want to live without children "To buy a property in the village, you have to be 45-plus with no dependent family in tow, and you must sign a contract agreeing not to sell property on to those with children."

This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/284210.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:

I may or may not find time to make a coherent post about this anytime soon. This one's important to me; the way we treat children in this country ranges from atrocity to tragedy. But it's late; I have to be up in five and a half hours (because, heh, one of my kids does not mesh well with public school). As a placeholder, have some linkspam:

Nov 16 @ Shut Up, Sit Down: Adult Privilege Checklist

Reading a post by Elena Perez at California NOW made me think about privilege checklists (like the Male Privilege Checklist and the White Privilege Checklist, for example) and I came to the realisation that, as yet, nobody had written an adult privilege checklist. So with some help from my good friend Jenny, using some of Elena Perez’s ideas from the aforementioned post, I set about writing the Adult Privilege Checklist.

Background; older posts:
April 13, Mothers For Women's Lib: You’ll never truly be “child free”

Oct 22, Raising My Boychick: Dancing between the tables: on the personhood of children

Nov 11, California NOW: Feminist Parenting: The Larger Picture

Nov 4, Left of the Pleiades: Dear Kate Harding

Reactions:
naraht: Adult privilege

hl: The Opression of Chilhood. In which I try for emotionless and hard analysis (and fail)

sqbr: Intersections of youth and other aspects of the kyriarchy

Saraspeaking: Mind. Blown.

flourish: Adult Privilege

This entry is crossposted at http://elf.dreamwidth.org/284122.html. You can comment there with OpenID from your LJ or IJ account. Comments so far:

( WriSoMiFu Day 25 - I need a vacation from my husband's vacation )

dragons~

The spouse and I are almost done getting ready (& packing all my extra meds) for the long drive North to our Thanksgiving gathering. Gluten-free noms here we come! ;)

We'll only have intermittent net access for a week, so a Happy (early) Turkey day to all! *sends warm wishes and blessings to my flist*

So apparently my mother's side of the family - the only family I've been in contact with these past two years - is falling apart as we speak. I don't mind so much because of Things I will summarise behind the cut, but my mother minds very much, which is why I'm very very angry about this.

( tl;dr about Jules' family which you might or might not want to know - touches some sensitive stuff )

I'm thinking it's getting clear why I'm not so hot on the family stuff.

Now this feels a bit better. A tiny, tiny bit.

My mom has been talking about this for weeks:

500,000 animals to be ritually slaughtered?

On Tuesday, November 24th the Gadimai animal sacrifice festival will take place in southern Nepal. It is said that 500,000 animals including buffaloes, chickens, goats, pigs, rats, and birds will be tortured and slaughtered during this Hindu festival.

Write to the Nepalese Embassy: info@nepalembassyusa.org

In India, the ritual slaughter of animals in such rites as the Agnicayana has long been replaced with effigies. There is no religious reason for this throwback. Despite the detailed instructions in Leviticus, Judaism no longer sacrifices the fatted calf. Like that.

Title: Clearing the Clutter
Author: joanwilder aka RaeWhit
Pairing: Harry/Severus
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 501
Disclaimer: All things Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling and her book and film companies.
Summary: Harry worries when Severus begins to clean house.

A/N: This is for accioslash for her correct guesses in the snarry_ldws competition. I have a suspicion she was using that 8-Ball of hers to make her guesses... Still to come for you, Accio, is a Snape/Draco ficlet!

( Clearing the Clutter )

I'm tutoring high school students, prepping them for the SAT.

I think what they need as much as good SAT scores are some good college strategies. Share yours here.

So here it is:

What no one will tell you about college (until you get there).

1 - Want to increase your scores 5% without doing anything?

( Sit in the same seat every day )

2 - Talk to your professor outside of class.

( Disagree with your prof? Good! Take it to her/him at the end of class. )

3 - Bored? Ask a question.

( Every time I found myself zoning out during a class I would raise my hand )

4 - Avoid clock-watching.

( Avoid the clock-watching tick by sitting where you can't see the clock. )

5 - High school is for taking the classes you hate. College is for taking the classes you love.

( Don't be a masochist -- if you can avoid that hated math class by taking a much more interesting astronomy class, do it.  )

6 - Know thyself. Work with your habits rather than against them.

( If you suck at mornings, don't take that 8:30am Japanese class. )

7 - Avoid schizophrenia and be efficient: Take related classes at the same time.

( You can use your readings from Indian history as sources for your Indian lit class and vice versa. )

8 - If the class you want is booked, show up anyway, books in hand, and participate vigorously.

( The professor would rather have you as an extra student than the disinterested slackers in the back. )

9 - Give yourself flexibility: Plan, plan, plan.

( When you're not sure of your major, take classes that apply to all three of your most likely majors first. )

10 - The one I learned too late: Build a relationship with professors who are top in their field by taking more than one class with them.

( If they're a bit of a name, their opinion carries weight. )

( WriSoMiFu Day 24 - Whatcha readin'? )

Reason number 211 why I love my high school tutoring students:

A student wrote his SAT essay. He detailed how, scientifically speaking, the planet doesn't need humans.

<3

Title: Recompense
Word Count: 100
Pairing: Severus/Harry
Rating: PG-13
snape100 Challenge 309: "Wikipedia, Redux!"
Warning: Reference to homophobia/verbal abuse.
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to JKR.
A/N: I wouldn't even believe me, but I swear this was the first thing that came up. :) Pornophobia.

( Recompense )