failhappens

A couple weeks ago, I came across the Goodreads page for Grip: A Memoir of Fierce Attraction, which caught my interest. It’s a memoir by Nina Hamberg about being a karate bamf, early advocate for women’s rights, and her personal struggles with relationships. I haven’t read the book yet, which was published July 20 of this year, but while looking over the summary, this caught my eye:

“Women resonate to the emotional journey the author travels to reclaim her ability to trust and love. Men respond to the action on the karate mat and the boldness of a young woman who doesn’t hesitate to fight.”

And I just kind of stared at it. Trying to decide if it was REALLY seriously included.

Because really, if you are confused: Men can also resonate with emotions. Women can also love a kickass physical confrontation. I mean. Considering this book. Obviously.

So I still marked it as to-read, because despite that little nougat of bullshit it still sounded interesting, but left a short “I can’t even” comment. I tried really hard to come up with a graceful and strong way to point out why this is such an egregious flaw, but went through several rewrites before simply quoting the above lines and adding “Really? Is this really implying that women will respond to something emotional, but not the action? I’m kind of dumb-founded why this is in the summary for a book like this.”

And now that I’m looking back at it, I wish I had worded it differently and more clearly, but what’s done is done, because yesterday I got a comment on it from the author.

Wow. You are so right. That copy is so wrong. I’m trying to revise the summary but it may take a long time before the distributor circulates a corrected file. Thanks for catching this!

And I see that the Goodreads summary has changed, and I’m glad that I actually said something about it, because I dithered about it before deciding ANXIETY BE DAMNED.

So this is partly a bookpimp (for a book I have never read) because fuck yeah women being bamfs in male-dominated areas, and because fuck yeah I am overcoming more and more of my anxieties chip by chip by chip.



x-posted to tumblr, although tumblr got gifs, but I am too lazy right now to add them onto this post. So. Deal with it.

Note to self: Next time I pick my jacket off a pile of laundry, check to make sure there's not a thong stuck to it. So you don't drop your thong in the library parking lot, come out thirty minutes later, think "Who the fuck dropped a thong near my c-- oh shit" and then be embarrassed and self-conscious the rest of the day.

On the plus side, at least I didn't walk through the library with a thong stuck to me.

And contrary to the subject line, they were clean panties. Until they were dropped on the ground. And then someone ran them over with their car.


Friends only psh I'm way too lazy for that. And everyone must know of my awful adventures

Ohoho finally updating after so long. I felt that New Year's Day would be a good time for this, what with all those resolutions and whatnot. Even if I don't really succeed at my goals, at least it gives me something to work for.

SO. 100 books in 1 year, re-reading doesn't count unless it's something I read forever ago (and by forever, I probably mean that I haven't read it in the past five years). College textbooks don't count, but fiction and non-fiction books assigned/recommended for class do. A single poem doesn't count [unless it's epic poetry (epic used in the classic sense of the word)], but a collection of poems does.


Book Count: 30
Books Left: 70


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Fuck you. No, really. Fuck. You.

I didn't mean it, baby, come back, it'll be different.

For the past few months, my sleep pattern has been screwy. Even when I get at least 8 hours, they are nowhere near consecutive. I needs my deep sleep plzkthnx. Yesterday, I fainted at work from a combination of bad sleep and no food. That was the funnest, especially when I was conscious enough to realise "Oh, my scab has broken open and there is blood on the floor." I think I cried for a bit before getting up to clean it, but it's kind of fuzzy from the point where I fainted to when Kylie and Katie took me to Karen to tell her I was leaving early.

SO THAT IS MY SUPER HAPPY FUN TIME STORY. My knee hurts more now because of that. =/ But at least the scab is still intact and everything is healing up. By the time I got home I felt too alert to go to sleep, but I managed to crash a few hours later. And I felt really good after 10 hours of sleep, but by the time I got to work today I was already exhausted.

So some more sleep would be really good right now SO KTHNX I AM GOING TO TRY TO SLEEPYTIME NOW and it better work out.

Every time I get geared up to finally write about personal issues, it falls flat. I think about it too hard, and decide it's pointless, and that it doesn't matter. Because, well, it really doesn't matter that much. So I guess I'll just give up on the idea about writing about certain subjects.


Yesterday a couple of girls crashed their bikes on the hill next to our house. The littlest one was screaming her head off, broke her wrist, poor thing. She kept saying she wanted her mommy and that her mom would be so mad at her, and she was so scared about having to go to the hospital. I felt super bad, because I tried to call her mom for her, but there wasn't a response. They got it all sorted out, though, the other girl's parents took her to the hospital, and I guess the girl's mom met them there.

I'm going to try teaching myself guitar this summer, using my brother's old guitar and internet tutorials. I haven't played anything since violin in sixth grade, so my fingers are probably going to be pretty clumsy at getting the fingering stuff correct and smooth. But I want to start playing an instrument again. I've always been kind of pissed at myself for not taking violin back up after moving, because I liked it. I liked practicing songs and getting good and being able to pull it out when I was bored. So we shall see how dedicated in practice I will be (since I'm not doing anything important, until I get a job. Except catching up on my reading. Fuck yeah).

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: Marvin Gaye?
You: Mom?
Stranger: Oh Marvin!!!!!
You: Mom, what are you doing on the internet, that's not for old people.
Stranger: Marvin, what are you doing on the internet, you are dead
You: I am here to spread the word of getting it on.
You: Let's get it on
You: Awwwwright.
You: But seriously, Mom. You have to stop.
Stranger: Can't stop
Stranger: Won't stop
Your conversational partner has disconnected.



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You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: Hey!
You: Hello!
Stranger: How are you!?
You: I want to go on an adventure.
Stranger: An adventure? Where to?
You: ~The very ends of the universe~
Stranger: :O
Stranger: May I join you?
You: Yes! Adventure best operates through the buddy system!
Stranger: Yes! Very true.
Stranger: When do we leave!?
You: TEN SECONDS AGO
Stranger: :O!
You: WE ARE NOW HURTLING THROUGH SPACE
Stranger: I'M SCARED!
You: HOLD TIGHT, WE'LL MAKE IT THROUGH SAFELY. WE'RE ADVENTURERS!
Stranger: OKAY!
Stranger: ARE WE THERE YET!?
You: WE HAVE LANDED ON AN UNKNOWN PLANET
You: THERE ARE DINOSAURS EVERYWHERE
You: THEY ARE PUKING RAINBOWS
Stranger: :O!! PUKING RAINBOWS!
Stranger: TAKE A PHOTO! QUICK
You: OKAY! WE HAVE SEVERAL PHOTOS OF THESE PUKING DINOSAURS!
Stranger: GOOD!
Stranger: hahah.
You: Oh no, a dinosaur stopped puking long enough to eat the camera! ):
Stranger: Noooo! Whatever shall we do? D:
You: I'm going in after it!
Stranger: BE SAFE!
You: IF I DON'T COME BACK
You: YOU WERE THE BEST ADVENTURING BUDDY EVER
You: EVER
Stranger: SO WERE YOU! Now, be strong!
You: ADVENTURE!

User: What's a bot like you doing in a place like this?

Cleverbot: I'm not a bot.

User: That's exactly what you said last time.

Cleverbot: There was no last time.
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Lalala making up my own prompts in an attempt to get me to write. It's a combination of several different prompt-generators I've seen floating around. They work better if you have more than one person who looks at your journal though, so there you go.

Setting music player to random, picking the first twenty songs. Time indicates word count. If you want to suggest a character, pairing, or plot for one of them, go ahead.

1. "She" - Abney Park - 400 words
She has always watched over me / She takes good care of me / She is such an integral part of me / That I forgot who I was / And I forgot she was there / For me

2. "Many Funerals" - Eisley - 252 words
Bring along your tricks and trade / We will lie here / Here we lay / And though this ship is out to sea / I'm content to lie peacefully

3. "Sons and Daughters" - Decemberists - 511 words
When we arrive / Sons and daughters / We'll make our homes on the water / We'll build our walls aluminum / We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now

4. "Blue" - Eiffel 65 - 446 words
Yo listen up here's a story / About a little guy that lives in a blue world / And all day and all night and everything he sees / Is just blue / Like him inside and outside

5. "Sipping on the Sweet Nectar" - Jens Lekman - 409 words
You remember your first kiss? / Well how can I forget? / My hand still shivers / from the very thought of it

6. "Summer in the City" - Regina Spektor - 350 words
summer in the city means cleavage cleavage cleavage / and I start to miss you, baby, sometimes / I’ve been staying up and drinking in a late night establishment / telling strangers personal things

7. "Speechless" - Lady Gaga - 431 words
I can't believe what you said to me / last night when we were alone / you threw your hands up / baby you gave up, you gave up

8. "Bachelor and the Bride" - Decemberists - 413 words
There's a wrinkle in the water / Where we laid our first daughter / And I think the wind blows so sweetly there / Over there

9. "Death of an Interior Decorator" - Death Cab for Cutie - 257 words
You were the mother of three girls so sweet / That storm through your turnstile, and climbed to the street / But after conception, your body lay cold / Withered through autumn then you found yourself old

10. "I am Stretched on Your Grave" - Abney Park - 432 words
I am stretched on your grave / And I'll lie there forever / If your hands were in mine / I'd be sure we'd not sever

11. "Never There" - Cake - 244 words
I need your arms around me / I need to feel your touch / I need your understanding / I need your love so much / You tell me that you love me so / You tell me that you care / But when I need you / Baby, you're never there

12. "Shake It" - Metro Station - 300 words
I'll take you home / If you don't leave me at the front door / Your body's cold / But girl, we're gettin' so warm / And I was thinking of ways / That I could get inside

13. "The Flock of 1000 Sparrows" - Trinity Project - 344 words

14. "Big Girls Don't Cry" - Fergie - 428 words
The smell of your skin lingers on me now / You're probably on your flight back to your home town / I need some shelter of my own protection baby / To be with myself instead of calamity / Peace, Serenity

15. "Now Three" - Vienna Teng - 304 words
city fast asleep / clouds up on the hill / so quiet, so still / dreams of rain in sheets / dreams of ice and wings / so delicate, these things

16. "Please Destroy Me" - Get Set Go - 327 words
Kiss me, hurt me, don't desert me / Smack me 'round and do pervert me / Break me, take me, love me, hate me / Overwhelm and desecrate me

17. "Girl With One Eye" - Florence and the Machine - 346 words
She told me not to step on the cracks / I told her not to fuss and relax / Pretty little face stopped me in my tracks / But now she sleeps with one eye open / That's the price she'll pay

18. "The Truth About Heaven" - Armor For Sleep - 333 words
Walked past my grave in the dark tonight / Saw the stone and the note you left for me / To answer your question, / I just had to leave, I just had to leave

19. "Ring Ring" - Mika - 249 words
I was sitting on the fence / And I thought that I would kiss you / I never thought I would've missed you / But you never let me fall / Push my back against the wall / Every time you call / You get so emotional / Oh, I'm freakin' out

20. "Practice Makes Perfect" - Cute Is What We Aim For - 344 words
So sweet I can hardly speak / Due to such trauma in my teeth / But your body language is telling me / That you're worth the pain / So weak I can hardly keep / Shaky legs holding up my feet / But your body language is telling me / That I'm not to blame

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1121716

Instead of keeping a list on LJ, this is a lot easier to organise. And maybe one day I'll actually write reviews on it.