quadruplify | Dec. 21st, 2009

CURRENT JAMS:
The Chameleons -- "Less Than Human" [album version] [alternate version]
The Twilight Sad -- "Seven Years of Letters"

As you can probably tell from my "Current Mood" thingy, I've been feeling quite down on myself lately. I can't really explain why, but I think it has to do with current events. I'm not feeling cynical or anything like that, just dispirited, disappointed, disgusted, despairing, and all the other ugly D's. Let's just say my fantasies about becoming an expatriate have become quite vivid indeed, and none of the otherwise awesome things contained herein have done much to lift me out of this. :/

But you know what's awesome? Getting a paid account!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD I had been thinking about getting paid time for a while now, and I'm actually really excited to have it! More icons! My Stats (yeah, it's kinda silly, but I'm a narcissist, shaddup)! No ads (even though I use AdBlock anyway)! A Friends of Friends page! Custom layouts (even though I don't know enough HTML and CSS to create my own, and I don't know where to find good ones already made, there are so many out there)! The ability to edit comments! Other stuff that I'll probably never use but sounds fucking awesome anyway (like polls, notes, voice posts, and anything else found here)! 8D Anyway, I got this for a year, so we'll see how this goes. Thanks to

eska_rina for the coupon! ;-)

And speaking of which, now that I have a paid account:

"Share the love with our $10 holiday coupons! If you're a Paid or Permanent user, you can send up to 10 Basic or Plus users a $10 coupon to upgrade to a one year paid account.

Recipients can upgrade for $9.95 (instead of $19.95) for one year by enrolling in our automatic payment plan or make a manual payment of $15 (instead of $25). Please note that these coupons are not transferable and cannot be used to renew existing paid accounts. Recipients must specifically decline the Holiday coupon in order for it to be credited back to the sender."

There are exactly seven of you on my f-list to whom this applies. If you're one of those seven and you want one (or you're stalking this journal and you want one too -- don't worry, I won't bite XD), let me know and I'll give one to you. Or hell, I'll probably give all seven of you one anyway. :P

Another pretty good thing: my aunt and cousin from California arrived today! They'll be staying the whole week and leaving next Saturday, the day after Christmas. I'm generally happy they're here, but since during this vacation I wanted to have a good dose of R&R&R&W&W (rest & relaxation & reading & writing and watching), that sort of puts a hamper on that because I'll probably be expected to Do Things with them. Not that that's a bad thing, of course, but they do tend to get on my nerves quite a bit (I'm fairly laid-back and no-nonsense and literal-minded and they're, well, the exact opposite of that ^_^;), and after having them come over every couple of years it does get a bit old. Still, it should make for a fun Christmas. ;-)

And meeting with the old friend in New Haven on Friday was awesome. I didn't get to meet with the other one on Saturday because her mom wouldn't let her go out because of the incoming blizzard. Never mind that the blizzard actually hit until that night, and dumped much less snow than we anticipated. B\ But it's all good.

Here's something interesting I came across today:

When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like "Avatar"?

I haven't seen James Cameron's Avatar yet (not to be confused with the one based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, even though that has its own buttload of race!fail I won't get into), but despite the hype I wasn't planning on seeing it for numerous reasons -- this just cemented it. I remember learning about the "white savior" plotline and how goddamned prevalent it is in Hollywood when we studied Dances With Wolves and the portrayal of Indians in the movies in my Native American class last spring -- in which the main white dude, at first part of the oppression, comes into contact with the people he's oppressing, and eventually not only becomes one of them, but becomes their leader/savior as well, completely getting rid of his white guilt and the guilt of everyone in the audience by proxy. It's really a racist and condescending notion, and it's a dumb and played-out plotline anyway -- while it looks progressive on the surface, at its core it's still the same kind of "white man's burden" thinking that leads to oppression in the first place. It's a dangerous meme that needs to be gotten rid of entirely, as long as people stop paying good money to see stuff like this -- and considering Avatar is currently #1 at the box office, it won't anytime soon. :/

Someone over at

ontd_political pointed out the irony that the white person complaining about white guilt in the article mentions that white people need to stop complaining about white guilt; while it is ironic, sometimes it takes a lengthy complaint to explain thoroughly why people should stop complaining at length about that thing ("fighting fire with fire," so to speak), and the article raised excellent points anyway. Another person over there mentioned how it is frequently necessary for those in power to help disenfranchised people attain more rights (such as the cases of emancipation and the civil rights and abortion rights movements); while this is very true, it would be nice to have a storyline in which this occurs (or at the very least, is told from the perspective of someone totally different from one expected by the predominantly white audience) rather than the more ingrained racism of gone-native "white saviors."

Ugh, this is very tiring, and it's 2 AM anyway, so here's a meme ganked from

fegie:

— Leave me a comment saying "Meme!" and I'll...
1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, song, color, photo, word, ETC.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.