(no subject)
Dec. 7th, 2009 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressDISCLAIMER: I keep a proper wishlist here. These are just superspecial christmas wishes.
Step One
Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post so that the holiday joy will spread.
Step Two
Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:
If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it. Once a wish has been granted, it will be crossed off my list.
You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.
There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.
Mine got...kinda esoteric and weird there. And here I really was hoping I could make the list full of possible things.
1) Support some webcartoonists. I keep a collection of the swag I specifically want but hell, you don't have to get it for me --just find some swag you want, and send some money to your favourite online comics guy or gal.
(And, I mean, I encourage the support of all art and artists. But for some reason, webcartoonists hold a particularly dear spot in my heart.)
2) Send me some letters, or some postcards, or a package, or an envelope containing an ad ripped out of a magazine, or a spoon, or whatever. I really *really* like getting mail, like a lot. Brightens my whole day.
You can find my college address here --it's valid until May.
3) Go dancing with me. Seriously, if you're Boston/Cambridge based, I do Scottish Country ever Monday night, and can be coaxed into Contra on occasional Thursdays. The SCD crowd is really friendly to beginners, and no one will stress out if you mess up a little, especially because EVERYONE messes up a little, in some dance or another.
If you're Maryland based, there is Oella --assorted vintage ballroom and swing set to modern music. First and third Sundays, Westchester community center.
4) I want what is essentially an Amelia Earhart costume. I have an okay leather jacket, but I need the brown aviator hat and the long white silk scarf. And probably the white(?) breeches
5) Goggles that go over my glasses.
6) A TARDIS. Would settle for an Airboat (Flyboat? Boatplane? Shipplane?) from Wonderpets. Or a really frelling good teleporter.
7)Some people to lighten the fuck up and learn to take a joke. Some people to learn that some things Just Aren't Funny. Myself to be able to balance those two halves, and even more so, be able to reconcile things like the fact that racist jokes0 aren't funny with the fact that battered women jokes are fucking hilarious1, 2, 3.
8) The usual. TGAoEaT and to be published. You can't help with these, they're my fights tofightwin.
9) Winning the other fights that are mine alone would be nice too.
7) In general, to be better about checking my upper/middle-class white girl seemingly heteronormative privilege at the door. To fight the good fight(s) even though they're hard, because it sucks to not be white and it sucks to not be straight and it sucks to not be mono-sexual6 and it sucks to not be cis and it sucks to not be monogamous and it sucks to not be male and it sucks to not be Christian, and it sucks to not be upper/middle-class, and it sucks to not be Privileged7, whatever we're talking about. And some of those I have to actively deal with, and some of those I have friends who have to actively deal with, and some of those are just things that a good person would do their best to deal with. I wanna see what I can do about being a good person.
Also, for internet drama to stop happening. Or if it does, keep happening in places where I can cozy up with some popcorn and watch, and don't have to lift a finger to deal with it.
10) My 21st birthday wants to be really really awesome. I want it to be a boozin' party --bring me the ingredients to make your favourite mixed drink. Make said drink for yourself. Give me a sip to taste, and leave me the ingredients. This will give me proper knowledge of how to make some drinks, and a little bit of a liquor cabinet, for when I have company.
Also, dancing. I want lots and lots and lots of dancing. Because dancing is bloody well *awesome*.
...Oh, and anyone suggesting I do 21 shots will, them themselves, be shot.
~Sor
MOOP!
0: Well, except for this one:
1: In my mind. I do not speak for everyone.
2: Why do brides wear white? So the dishwasher matches the fridge! Booyah!
3: Oh fuckingfuck, this is gonna turn into a post, isn't it?
Look, hitting girls4 isn't funny. At all, or ever. Neither is, for that matter, hitting boys. Nor is racism.
Why do I find battered women jokes funny? I don't know. Because I'm an asshole? Maybe. Because I'm a woman, and were I less lucky, that could be me? Maybe.
I don't think the humour comes from the actual joke. "Goes to the kitchen and makes me a sandwich if she knows what's good for her!" is not what I want from anyone, and if I knew someone who was in that situation, I'd do what I could to help them get out. But the joke is funny, because it's laughing at the attitudes that let such a thing exist --"oh, haha, some men are so backwards and ignorant that they'll hit women! How droll!"
It's not droll. It's scary as shit. It's wonderful that I've never had to put up with that, but other people do. This is not good. I can't promise I'll stop laughing, because sometimes the humour is in just how offensive the joke is. But let's see if I can be better about not letting such attitudes spread.
*scratches out 7 and rewrites it*
4: Or women. I tend to use the terms "girls" and "boys" in my journal significantly more often than I use "women" and "men". This is not me trying to look down on people, or make them seem less by using the diminutive5. I just tend to feel more comfortable with the terms boy and girl, both because I feel they sound a little nicer, and because I believe there are different social connotations to woman and man than girl or boy.
This is why my 3d4 boyfriends are called collectively "my boys" instead of "my men". The latter just...sounds weird.
5: With the exception of myself. I scornfully call myself "Little girl" pretty damn often in my BehindtheWalls and otherwise private (read: emo) writings, and it's almost always meant as a term of offense --a sort of "why the fuck don't you grow some responsibility and grow up already". I don't use it towards other people. Other people do NOT have the right to use it towards me.
6: Used here as to mean "neither hetero nor homosexual"
7: Considering that I can think of at least three that I didn't list (fat, ablism, agism) and I'm sure there are more...yeah. Let's work on that being a good person thing.
Step One
Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post so that the holiday joy will spread.
Step Two
Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:
If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it. Once a wish has been granted, it will be crossed off my list.
You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call.
There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.
Mine got...kinda esoteric and weird there. And here I really was hoping I could make the list full of possible things.
1) Support some webcartoonists. I keep a collection of the swag I specifically want but hell, you don't have to get it for me --just find some swag you want, and send some money to your favourite online comics guy or gal.
(And, I mean, I encourage the support of all art and artists. But for some reason, webcartoonists hold a particularly dear spot in my heart.)
2) Send me some letters, or some postcards, or a package, or an envelope containing an ad ripped out of a magazine, or a spoon, or whatever. I really *really* like getting mail, like a lot. Brightens my whole day.
You can find my college address here --it's valid until May.
3) Go dancing with me. Seriously, if you're Boston/Cambridge based, I do Scottish Country ever Monday night, and can be coaxed into Contra on occasional Thursdays. The SCD crowd is really friendly to beginners, and no one will stress out if you mess up a little, especially because EVERYONE messes up a little, in some dance or another.
If you're Maryland based, there is Oella --assorted vintage ballroom and swing set to modern music. First and third Sundays, Westchester community center.
4) I want what is essentially an Amelia Earhart costume. I have an okay leather jacket, but I need the brown aviator hat and the long white silk scarf. And probably the white(?) breeches
5) Goggles that go over my glasses.
6) A TARDIS. Would settle for an Airboat (Flyboat? Boatplane? Shipplane?) from Wonderpets. Or a really frelling good teleporter.
7)
8) The usual. TGAoEaT and to be published. You can't help with these, they're my fights to
9) Winning the other fights that are mine alone would be nice too.
7) In general, to be better about checking my upper/middle-class white girl seemingly heteronormative privilege at the door. To fight the good fight(s) even though they're hard, because it sucks to not be white and it sucks to not be straight and it sucks to not be mono-sexual6 and it sucks to not be cis and it sucks to not be monogamous and it sucks to not be male and it sucks to not be Christian, and it sucks to not be upper/middle-class, and it sucks to not be Privileged7, whatever we're talking about. And some of those I have to actively deal with, and some of those I have friends who have to actively deal with, and some of those are just things that a good person would do their best to deal with. I wanna see what I can do about being a good person.
Also, for internet drama to stop happening. Or if it does, keep happening in places where I can cozy up with some popcorn and watch, and don't have to lift a finger to deal with it.
10) My 21st birthday wants to be really really awesome. I want it to be a boozin' party --bring me the ingredients to make your favourite mixed drink. Make said drink for yourself. Give me a sip to taste, and leave me the ingredients. This will give me proper knowledge of how to make some drinks, and a little bit of a liquor cabinet, for when I have company.
Also, dancing. I want lots and lots and lots of dancing. Because dancing is bloody well *awesome*.
...Oh, and anyone suggesting I do 21 shots will, them themselves, be shot.
~Sor
MOOP!
0: Well, except for this one:
What do you call a black guy who flies a plane?
A pilot, you racist!
1: In my mind. I do not speak for everyone.
2: Why do brides wear white? So the dishwasher matches the fridge! Booyah!
3: Oh fuckingfuck, this is gonna turn into a post, isn't it?
Look, hitting girls4 isn't funny. At all, or ever. Neither is, for that matter, hitting boys. Nor is racism.
Why do I find battered women jokes funny? I don't know. Because I'm an asshole? Maybe. Because I'm a woman, and were I less lucky, that could be me? Maybe.
I don't think the humour comes from the actual joke. "Goes to the kitchen and makes me a sandwich if she knows what's good for her!" is not what I want from anyone, and if I knew someone who was in that situation, I'd do what I could to help them get out. But the joke is funny, because it's laughing at the attitudes that let such a thing exist --"oh, haha, some men are so backwards and ignorant that they'll hit women! How droll!"
It's not droll. It's scary as shit. It's wonderful that I've never had to put up with that, but other people do. This is not good. I can't promise I'll stop laughing, because sometimes the humour is in just how offensive the joke is. But let's see if I can be better about not letting such attitudes spread.
*scratches out 7 and rewrites it*
4: Or women. I tend to use the terms "girls" and "boys" in my journal significantly more often than I use "women" and "men". This is not me trying to look down on people, or make them seem less by using the diminutive5. I just tend to feel more comfortable with the terms boy and girl, both because I feel they sound a little nicer, and because I believe there are different social connotations to woman and man than girl or boy.
This is why my 3d4 boyfriends are called collectively "my boys" instead of "my men". The latter just...sounds weird.
5: With the exception of myself. I scornfully call myself "Little girl" pretty damn often in my BehindtheWalls and otherwise private (read: emo) writings, and it's almost always meant as a term of offense --a sort of "why the fuck don't you grow some responsibility and grow up already". I don't use it towards other people. Other people do NOT have the right to use it towards me.
6: Used here as to mean "neither hetero nor homosexual"
7: Considering that I can think of at least three that I didn't list (fat, ablism, agism) and I'm sure there are more...yeah. Let's work on that being a good person thing.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2009-12-07 07:20 pm (UTC)You're so kind!
on 2009-12-07 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:08 pm (UTC)~Sor
What happened ...
on 2009-12-07 07:20 pm (UTC)Re: What happened ...
on 2009-12-07 07:30 pm (UTC)Order is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 7, 10.That will teach me to be fast on the comments.
Re: What happened ...
on 2009-12-07 09:08 pm (UTC)~Sor
no subject
on 2009-12-07 07:35 pm (UTC)Man, me too. Liek Woah. *packs wee surprise box*
6) A TARDIS.
Double Ditto on this. Liek Woah.
And the biggest thing on my wishlist really is to have my life become such that i'd have the focus to post this Meem? on my elljay *nodnodnod*
no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:08 pm (UTC)Yay letters and stuff.
~Sor
no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:08 pm (UTC)...I have no idea what a boat drink is entirely, but, you know. Enthusiasm.
~Sor
no subject
on 2009-12-07 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:09 pm (UTC)~Sor
no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:27 pm (UTC)And done: http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3KPR8HDL0AXB7
no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:32 pm (UTC)That probably means that you can just add an entire LJ entry... like this one.
no subject
on 2009-12-07 07:57 pm (UTC)Racism in contrast is different in that many people are pretty blatantly racist or insist that they aren't racist but are just telling the truth. Or something like that. The line between racism and seeing legitimate cultural or other problems in groups isn't clear and so it makes the matter much more delicate.
There is however one joke that will always be funny:
A priest and a rabbi are walking down a street and they see a little boy. The priest says "Do you want to go screw him?" The rabbi asks "out of what?"
*runs off*
no subject
on 2009-12-07 08:31 pm (UTC)As I've been very distressed to learn upon paying more attention on the Internet in the last few years, this is only true if you ask something like "Is domestic abuse wrong?" If you start looking at what people actually do, or what actions people support actively or tacitly (say by failure to convict), it really doesn't look so good.
Ironic jokes like this only work if it's immediately obvious to every listener that the joke is at the expense of the protagonist/teller/etc. I can probably get away with telling a battered woman joke to a small number of close friends in private, relying on their knowledge that I'm strongly opposed to domestic violence and don't think it can ever be rationalized. If I were to tell such a joke in public, I'd be that asshole that supports a culture of tacit support for this kind of behavior, because some man who does think that way hears me telling the funny joke and feels justified in his belief, and because women hear some random guy telling this sort of joke and have no way to distinguish me from being part of the problem. And that's if I'm lucky enough not to be heard by a woman who's been abused in the past and totally ruin her day.
no subject
on 2009-12-07 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 10:38 pm (UTC)If the number of people who still act that way/believe it's right were actually a vanishing minority ostracized to the edges of society [like, I don't know, slave owners today?], I'm wondering if there might be a realm where it was still relevant enough for humor [if not novel] without being dangerous.
I'm thinking on my feet here, though...it might still not be worth it.
no subject
on 2009-12-08 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-08 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 11:54 pm (UTC)~Sor
no subject
on 2009-12-08 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-12-07 11:59 pm (UTC)...Well, certain cards are more holiday oriented than others, but it is not my fault that Raphael is a Christmas-colored Ninja Turtle and that I for some reason decided drawing him for a friend, the doodle being of him protesting being used as a Christmas decoration, was a good idea. I've no idea what I'm drawing next. My ideas will either run out and become normal and boring, or will continue to grow more bizarre.