Moof.

I really should be in bed by now, but I don't particularly feel like going to sleep - that'll only bring the morning all too faster, and mornings suck. >.> So, meanwhile, I shall blog so that m'dear has something to read when he's done his midterm. Aye!

School's been the same-ol', same-ol'... Quite boring, I mean. It's nearly implementation time for the 275 project, though - which means that we'll be pulling all-nighters soon enough. >.> Ouch.
Not that the idea of staying up all night hyped up on caffeine and Red Bull isn't attractive, mind, but I have a feeling tempers will begin to get short once we start finding problems and discovering the enormity of the situation.
It was commented on that Trav and I were quite silly for being in the same 275 group - and the rational part of me tends to agree. Ah well, if we can survive through a tight deadline such as this without tearing each other's throats out, things shall be fine, I think. XD
I should probably look at the fifth deliverable before I go in tomorrow... I already know it's a class presentation, though, which really rather sucks. I've had a fear of public speaking since... well, as long as I can remember. I've managed to overcome the fear of speaking on phones, and the fear of being around people, but I don't speak in front of large groups on stage nearly enough to get rid of this one. *whimper*

Work's been a pain in the ass recently, although it's been a bit better since the dumbass was fired. Still a lot of work for me, though, particularly on Tuesday and Saturday, since I have to catch up on the billing and balancing for the days that I'm not there. This is particularly bad on Tuesdays, since Joy works on that evening, and finds a million other tasks for me to do... Tonight, for instance, I had to dart out to Office Depot and back to get some stuff before I could close up the office... Along with figuring out why a lady's bills were wrong from a couple of months back, and balancing cheques for insurers, and sending out phone calls in search of various useless bits of information, and...

Bah.

Maybe it's her hormones spinning her off into overdrive, or something - found out at last week's staff meeting that she's pregnant, as well as the kinesiologist that works with us. >.> Quite surprising, and only goes to show how oblivious I am to such things, since the other therapists had half-noticed, and Reema knew about it before she left. XD Ah well.
Woulda thought Joy too old, though - heck, she looks older than me mom. Oh well.

Lately, I've been getting into more and more altercations with the folks... Used to be my brother that was always doing such, and not I - I was always the good little lass. Not so much any more, I guess - it's gotten down to the point where we can't go a week without having at least one rather heated argument about something-or-other. Yesterday, for instance, we had our counters and kitchen sink redone, and apparently ist's rather unfeeling not to mention something nice about them the moment I walk in the door. >.> Frig, they're counters. I don't really give a shit about interior decorating, but Mom doesn't seem to grasp that - and when I told her as much after she first pointed out that I should say something, she began sounding off about what a nasty snit I am. Gee, thanks.
Really, quite nice to be told by yer own mother that you're a horrible person. Over a damned counter-top, fer crying out loud.
Unfortunately, even with the raise I got, it's still going to be a while before I can afford to move out... Unless I got myself into debt, or something, perhaps with a student loan - and I really don't wanna go that route yet. Gah.

Elthrai somehow managed to get half-restarted over the past week or so... I dunno what exactly is going to go on with it, but meh. I figure I can keep up with one Weyr that's moving rather slowly.
I've been wanting to restart Eternal Forest lately... But haven't exactly found the time. I've got a few plots simmering away on a back burner, somewhere, but until I get the time to change about the Weyr into what it could be, it's going to be a while before I can think about getting to them.
Especially since the first one involves Dark Star, and that doesn't even technically exist yet. XD
It's a pity that being able to post with bells and whistles in MSN Groups requires the use of IE, though - stupid code that they use is a bastardization of HTML, or something, and thus isn't recognized by Firefox. You'd think they'd make a site as useful as it accessible to everyone, but nooo...
I think I'll write and complain to someone.
Stupid Microsoft taking over everything.

AKP's been fairly mundane, lately - no firefights between anybody, which is good. I did have a rather annoying gal bother me a couple of nights ago, and return tonight, though... After giving her the requisite warnings about improper description, and ejecting her, she returned. I promptly sent her on her way again. And again, she came back. Repeat this about fifteen times, until she finally whines to me about how she keeps getting ejected. Exasperated, I beat my head against the wall, spell out to her why she's getting ejected, and points her to the rule page.
Repeat enter-and-eject cycle.
Finally, I tell her that it's probably a good idea for her to go find some other dream to be in that's not in a strict continuity like ours, as she won't get booted from it. Thankfully, she eventually got the hint, but only after too much stupidity to count. She dared netspeak while in the dream, for crying out loud!
Tonight, she returned, and thankfully left just after my warning, and before I could boot her out. Again. She continued to whine, though - seemed to have forgotten what it was that was bad - so I sent her to read the rules once more, until she understood and got the hint of what she was doing wrong. She complained that she couldn't understand some of them. I whacked my head up against the monitor again. She asked if she could ask a few questions - and, well, that I could comply with. I answered what she gave me (basic stuff about in character and out of character), until she got to the last one.
'what is role play'
YAAAAAAAAAARGH.
I didn't even bother trying to explain, after that - she comes to a strict RP dream, and doesn't know what roleplay even is? She can't figure out why she keeps getting booted? BAH!
I did ask her, after that, why the heck she kept wanting to come back to the dream, and she replied along the lines of - well, exactly along the lines of 'for me to know, and you to find out'. Attitude from a dolt!
For gods' sakes, the dream isn't all that populated, not like she could meet anyone there... We aren't sex-oriented like most of the dreams based in FurN, and we do have a strict ruleset and continuity that requires research to properly play. We aren't a dream for the beginning person to start out in. What the fuck?
Seriously, if she shows up one more time and disregards the rules... Yarr, I'm so recommending her for a ban. >.> Some brands of stupid can't be helped.

Now then, I know I had some sort of half-serious topic to blather about...

Why is it that such things only stick around for a half of a night, or so? XD

...Ah, nevermind. XD Remembered.

I really do hate it when people can't be open-minded, and can't accept the fact that they may be wrong in what they believe.
A week or two ago, Mom and I had another heated argument - this time of the topic of homosexual marriage. Everyone living somewhere within a span of Canada sorta knows this to be a topic of contention at the moment - at least we're lightyears ahead of what the US seems to be floundering at.
I am for it. It's not like letting two dudes or two gals getting married is going to harm anyone else, and it lets them show their love for each other, if that's how they wanna go about doing it - just like any other couple on the face of the planet. Really, I'd think it's rather a good thing, overall - such a union can't naturally produce children, and that's absolutely a great thing. Yes, I hear all the religious movements going GASP at such a proposition - isn't that what marriage was about, for the continued production of small meatbags? Perhaps centuries ago, this was a problem, but with the planet currently hosting about 4 billion more people than it can support, more small meatbags aren't really needed. And, for that matter, if the gay population wants children, most of 'em adopt - which is great for kids who otherwise would've been abandoned.
Hellfires, it's not like the proposed Canadian laws would even hurt the clergy - they dun have to perform the ceremonies if they don't want to. But why would they let other folk slip into such sinful lifestyles? Pfah, can't they worry about their own damned damnation instead, and let other people do what they want? Again, the not hurting anybody part, here.
But no, dear ol' mom can't see that. "TRADITIONTRADITIONDTRADITION".
No matter how many times I managed to make perfectly good points as to why it'd be a good thing, she'd bring out the 'traditional' line, as if it was some damned piece of driftwood that the survivors of a shipwreck were clinging to.
Guess what? Traditions change, and for good reason. I hate to quote the Peak, but up until the early 1980s, it was legal for a man to rape his wife - she was, more or less, his property to do whatever he wanted. That's traditional. Should we revert to such obviously barbaric rules, just because it's traditional?
What of interracial marriage? That was very much against tradition, too, but now no-one gives a damn about it.
And on that note, it's also traditional to suffer not a witch to live. I'm not exactly a witch, but I do still appear to be alive, which means that a whole heck of a lot of Christians aren't living by the word of their almighty collective hallucination.
(I could insert more blasphemy against said religion, but I'll hold myself back for tonight. Don't particularly wanna overly offend anyone.)
Traditions were created waaaaay back when because certain rules were needed to govern life, and to propogate the next generation, or to teach certain lessons about how the world works - traditional Native stories, for example, helped to warn the growing generations about dangers, or how to make life easier with tools and suchlike.
But it turns out, as time passes, some traditions need to fall by the wayside, especially those that no longer serve a purpose.

Mother-dear seemed quite surprised with the vehemence that I defended the folk with - to the point where she had to ask me if I was gay, since I was so upset about it. I'm not, but I can't fucking well stand to see a group of people, who are only looking to have the same rights as anyone else and most of whom are perfectly good people, repeatedly hurt - HURT! - by a steamroller of folks with 'good intentions'.
Well, you can go shove your good intentions up your ass, because, as it turns out, good intentions usually only do harm rather than good.

And why would I get so upset over such a thing, when I'm not even related to that group of people? Hell, I don't even have any gay relatives who are close to me... The only one I know of, I've never met, as she's been ostracized by my father's side of the family.

Turns out that pagans are also a little group, often steamrolled by the collective righteousnesses, with no thought as to what they think or feel.
And when you're a self-practitioning one, like me, who doesn't follow any god in particular, but deals with a tangent and can only call herself a pagan because of a very similar set of beliefs in some things...
Well, being in a very small group, where everyone else thinks so differently from you, tends to make you wanna stick up for the little guy.

And as it's being open-minded is a tenant of my religion, one that I try to follow to the best I can... I tend to get very frustrated with those who refuse to see outside of the box they've built themselves into.
Frustrated, to the point where I hate.

I hate them. I can't stand it - to me, not being able to look through another person's eyes is the worst crime you can commit. I don't understand why I hate it so much, not exactly - I couldn't give you a rational reason for it. I just do.

And some may say that's quite hypocritical of me - after all, shouldn't I be open-minded enough to look through the traditionalists' lives, and respect what they want?
But I have, even though I can come up with hundreds of reasons as to why their thinking is silly. And if they want to live their lives traditionally, they can.

They just shouldn't be able to force their beliefs on anybody else.