This otter is disappointed with you. Very, very disappointed with you.
(Via Buzzfeed.com).
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
I just went in to edit this post to add an image description in the alt-text, and found that I had automatically described the otter as “him”. I fixed it on the next edit within seconds, but wow.
This default gender stuff is truly insidious.
I apologise to this otter and undertake to do better in future.
There have been various glosses on him on the internets, from watching too much crap TV to not having finished Infinite Jest.
Somehow weeks that involve public holidays (which of course should be excellent), instead end up being horrible, problem filled days with much less time to sort things in.
But now it is the weekend. And I am going to get my hair cut in a few hours, and have a lunch tomorrow to go to. And my best friend had a baby this week as well, which is of course exciting.
At Wellington airport waiting for our flight. Hoping that the kids fall asleep on the way home because they are cranky pants and the slightest thing brings tears (including being told not to read my comments). It could be an interesting flight. Then home tomorrow to see if the cats are still talking to us and how many mice, grasshoppers etc are currently residing in our house. I’m sure the chookies will be pleased to see us anyway.
NZ has been wonderful. I could happily live here I think if the need arose but I’m banking on Malcolm rising if need be.
Okay, a friend has unclogged our intertubes, and he didn’t even use a plunger because we only have instant.
During a recent discussion, being “recent” from the perspective of someone clogged, I had a discussion with someone about “Politically correct bullshit” *Twitch clench* with someone who should know better if they’d ever turn their intelligence to the idea instead of jerking their knees at it.
I asked for their definition of “polite” and “politically correct”, hoping for something I could set examples against to cause some thought.
Has anyone else had this discussion, or have some definitions they have found useful in getting smart people to stop saying stupid thing that they might be willing to share?
Just a quick drive by – I was catching up on reading posts here from a while ago, and saw the LOLWUT pear on Helen’s post about No Sad Songs For Me. (Which I haven’t seen, and likely never will.) And I just had to point out that the original artist is Ursula Vernon, the original image the Biting Pear of Salamanca, and that while she has a blog up on her website, her livejournal includes her gardening posts as well. And her writing style is just as entertaining and amazing as her art. (And her webcomic Digger is a very good read, is finished, and the lead character is a rather pragmatic wombat.)
I’m feeling very blue, I’ve got insomnia and my kids have been tearful all day. I don’t think I can take the otter being disappointed with me as well.
*remembers there is a remnant of chocolate in the fridge*
@Sunset, I am so sorry to hear that. I wasn’t really happy about the otter being disappointed with us either, but wasn’t sure if it was worth making a fuss. For your sake, I say the otter is disappointed with the insomnia and your kids being difficult.
I still find this classic post by Zuky the most useful for summing up what is wrong with the discourse of “PC”. My takeaway from this and other articles I’ve read on the subject, and my own analysis (because it’s kind of a bugbear of mine), is that “PC” should read “simple good manners towards people who are less powerful than you are, just as you would use toward people you perceive as your equal or superior”. Or something like that.
Ask your friend the last time he made an edgy joke about his CEO’s awful ties in his presence.
It’s interesting that Zuky reposts this from his old blog with a disclaimer that he no longer likes it as much as when he first posted it. I’d love to see an updated version and wonder how it would be different.
Oh looky! The same sexist assumption TT spoke of.
His or her presence.
Although I am assuming he will be a him because patriarchy still gives us overwhelming no’s of male CEOs.
Aqua, I think the otter needs to clean up her own damn back yard before being so judgy-judgy!
Otter snuggle? http://icanhascheezburger.com/2012/03/31/cute-animals-we-otter-snuggle/
Helen,
thanks for the link, and yes, of the nine photos of members of the national board of the organisation my friend works for, seven of them appear to be men in ties. I’m still stirring my mind soup to see what floats to the surface, what might get a few of their brain cells to spark on the matter. I’ll keep looking, see if I can pick up any other useful tips.
Thanks, Aqua. Whatever the otter thinks, at least our chooks are happier with us. We sorted out a new run today and they have been happily mining the rich vein of insect life around the compost bins. The kids are happier today, too. Now to get some sleep. ‘night all.