silver

( I would like to buy seventeen weekends in a row, or just time, if you've got any in stock. Sleep-time. )

eta: and now I wonder if there's a bug [prev open, post to prev, backbutton works, etc: GET/POST error; replication tomorrow]

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I love the views, I love the pristine and massive land reserves in the city, I love the size of the (and consequently goods/services available), I love the amount of sunshine, and I love the people who open and give when there's been a tragedy. (A few weeks ago, a young boy was killed by the LRT--when I went past the station later that week, I found piles of flowers and teddy bears and cards and gifts.)

I hate the snow that extends into June (I love snow, but not that late into the year), I hate the slowness of public transit, I hate the hilliness of some parts because cars and buses get stuck or slide down the icy slopes, I hate the fact that the City Council gets trashed by people all the time--I wish people'd be grateful, for once--and I hate the scorn that's often piled on top of my province (and city) for its oilsands.

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Generally annoyed, which is why I see them very rarely.

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I really only know one of his songs, and it's always so fun to sing: We are the World. The original's singers--you can see by their singing, by their faces, that the intensity isn't faked.

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NOT EVEN GOING TO TOUCH THIS.

Actually, I change my mind. 300% of our personality. You can pick which one gets it.

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I know I complain about my life not infrequently, but really, I think I'm pretty lucky. I like my life, most of t he time, and I'm proud of what I've done; I wouldn't trade in my memories or life for a possibly better life. I'm not sure why I was born with so many things--freedoms and rights and education and all my basic needs met and more and a lovely family--and I wouldn't trade them in.

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Maybe not "fundamental goodness of humankind" (ugh), but after seeing people pushing and fighting back against the Racefail '09, I felt like there might be some hope there. Incredible eloquence in the face of so much ugliness.

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Not outright bullying, no, but there've been moments where I've thought: should I call them out on a bigoted/racist/homophobic joke? Should I ask them not to say that? and often enough, I don't. I feel guilty for not doing so, but there you go. I think that we should call people out on stuff like that, but it is hard in real life, and I'd like to keep trying to make people aware. 

*Edit: I've found one. Emotions pending.* And on a tangentially related topic--does anyone have a transcript of the conversation between Gillian Duffy and Gordon Brown? When I read the news over here, my first thought was to wonder if she was really being bigoted, because I don't think people throw those kinds of words around lightly. And if she was talking about immigration, I can hear the alarm bells ringing wildly. 

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Love it. Quality is not a measure of validity, for those of you screeching that it's garbage.

And, well, here is a link to many of the amazing (most of them legitimate, in-print, highly acclaimed novels and works) pieces of fanfic that have been written by others, here.

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It's kind of interesting how people are taking this question: some are answering it, straight up, and adding justification either for or against; others are squabbling over semantics (or telling everyone it's about semantics), or bashing the question (I paraphrase: "This is such a tiny issue; if we're caring about this, what about all those human injustices?") and the random spam, of course.

What's neat, though, is to see how people judge words. There are some that say changing the word doesn't make a difference, especially for the pet--they don't, to my knowledge, understand English/human language all that well. There is no point in changing this thing, say this group, and it's just quibbling over a set of words which are similar anyway.

And then there are people who feel that those words do have power. And frankly, though I don't care whether pets have guardians or owners, I agree with this. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" was either a sarcastic remark, or a statement from someone who hadn't felt the lash of words. The vocabulary I use influences the way I say what I my thoughts, how others interpret this, and thus the meaning they draw from it. Do not tell me that formal language, of which I am now using, conveys the same impression that colloquial English does. If I suddenly use words that are everywhere in daily life, I come across differently. Words have power. Sometimes more than we think it does.