All art is at once surface and symbol

Originally posted by lavenderfrost at ...WTF.

Tomorrow, my friend jeansama is going to set up his Livestream so we can all watch the Lucario movie in Japanese with English subtitles~ ♥

It'll be at 10:00 PM Central Time / 8:00 PM Vancouver Time, so if you want to join us in watching and squeegling over Lucario and having fun, feel free to join us~ ♥♥♥

I'll post the Livestream link when it's about time. Just thought I'd give you all a heads up~ ♥

Earlier this year Millicent Gaika, a 30-year-old South African woman, was tied up, beaten, strangled, tortured and raped for five hours by a man as he screamed that he would “cure” Millicent of her lesbianism.

Ndumie Funda, a local community activist whose lesbian partner was murdered in the course of a similar “corrective rape,” reached out to Millicent through a small local charity she set up to rescue and support survivors of “corrective rape.” But last month they both had to go into hiding after the South African government released the perpetrator they had helped to jail on 60 rand (less than $10) bail.

Ndumie, Millicent and others decided to fight back against the rapists and the lack of accountability for their crimes. From a Cape Town safehouse for survivors of ‘corrective rape,’ the women created a petition on Change.org targeting South African Justice Minister Jeffrey Radebe.

Please, they wrote, declare 'corrective rape' a hate crime, which would both empower and require South African police to take a harder line on the vicious crime.

More than 500 “corrective rapes” are reported in South Africa each year, and more than 30 South African lesbians have been murdered because of their sexuality over the past decade. Worse, for every 100 men charged with rape in South Africa, 96 of them walk free.

We can help here. Last year, South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority went on record refusing to formally declare 'corrective rape' a hate crime, saying "It is not something that the South African government has prioritized as a specific project."

But with enough international pressure on the South African government, such heinous crimes might finally be taken seriously. More than 2,000 Change.org members have added their name to the petition created by Ndumie and Millicent. Click here to add yours:

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/south_africa_declare_corrective_rape_a_hate-crime?alert_id=SlPqUMmEGV_XBeGjgnVCp&me=aa

Thank you for taking action,

- The Change.org Team

What the fuck. This is sickening. We just got rid of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, but shit like this still goes on in South Africa? This sort of disgusting behavior is NOT acceptable.

We can't do anything about oblivious 11-year-old Bieber fangirls and there's always gonna be psychotic Anime fans. One of the sad facts of life we'll have to accept and move on. But! There is something you CAN do and vote for charities at Refresh Everything. Pepsi is giving away millions of funds for ideas and you can vote for your favorite ten all month long. Here are some of the causes you can support:

- Keep homeless babies and children warm: provide mittens, hats & socks
- Purchase musical intruments and supplies for high poverty schools
- Empower women in verbally abusive or controlling relationships
- Rehabilitate birds of prey to their native habitats throughout the US
- Establish a disabled veterans loan fund to help create their homes
- Give 25k to FictionAlley, a giant wanky HP ficsite, to run their servers, which costs $2400 a year.

*SCREEEEECH chord*

Wait, what? What the hell is that doing here?

Unfortunately, FictionAlley has deemed themselves worthy of charity, as opposed to oh, spaying/neutering animals in no-kill shelters or providing education to the children of drug addicts. Yeeeeeah. Because crappy Draco/Ginny fanfiction is educational and will enlighten endangered species of animals who will be wiped clean off the ecosystem because the much-needed charity got wasted on something selfish like... that. Harry and Hermione's twu wuv isn't going to prevent AIDS. Who the fuck cares about your Snape/Remus slavefic AU when a woman has no support to help her escape her verbally-abusive boyfriend? Gotta fill those bellies with shipwars! I mean, think about it. It's like giving 25k to GPX+ and it's not going to help anyone but the moderators, who'll only get rich off their asses.

What I'm saying here is that it takes a painless five seconds to sign up and give ten of your votes each day to any cause you want, as long as it doesn't help FA in any way. Spread the word. Don't give a cent to something as shallow and greedy as FA. Along the way, you could give free guitar lessons to impoverished kids, provide sex education in schools, recycle crayons thrown away in restaurants... the list goes on. Anything you vote for is more noble than what FA has deluded themselves thinking. In short... LET'S ROCK!

BOYCOTT FA! VOTE FOR OTHER CHARITIES TODAY!

WISCONSIN IS BEAUTIFUL GUYS.

Seriously, there's trees (different kinds!), colors (GREEN), lakes, barns & silos, birds, fireflies, gorgeous skies, jgdkslgdlk oh yeah Wisconsin Dells AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. It's eye candy everywhere I look. The sunrises/sunsets are amazing here. *-*

Parents had me up about all night (mostly drills from Mom) and what's worse, they blasted music when I was trying to sleep. No, talking to them didn't make it better, all they did was lower the volume. Ugh, and I can still hear it. The plane ride was terrible. The cushions were nice, but I wish I could say the same about the chair itself. I was weary and wanted shut-eye, but no. My back hurt, I got a crick in my neck, and I couldn't get comfortable no matter how I positioned myself. A couple good things did come from the trip though. Mom and I went to a book shop to get ourselves something to read; Mom got Chuck Palahniuk's Tell-All and I got *dundundundun* Watership Down. I always wanted to read that book! Thank goodness for Steph's kindness and Dannie's warm and cozy bed.

The Dolan's house is comfy and amazing and they have an outdoor kitty named Striker that took a love to me right away. I got up for a closer view of the woods and she was rubbing against my legs. ;; I got to meet Matt, Brianna's future husband, and he's truly a great guy. Hilarious, warm-hearted, and fun to be around. Uncle Ricke brought a travel edition of Apples To Apples, so we had fun and laughs playing that (I kept picking Mom's cards although I was clearly trying to avoid her. ;;) I got to show a few of my music videos finally, though later people were mostly chatting. Ricke seemed genuinely interested in my work though, and was deeply focused in watching and listening to me explain things. ;; Later, Matt realized that I made these instead of watching someone else's vids and he said he was impressed. :o

Yesterday we went to Noah's Ark! Aka the biggest waterpark in the world according to the consensus. It's been what, years since I've been there? I missed the place so much. Flash Flood's gotta be my favorite. You get double the benefit; a splash from coming down, and a splash from standing on the bridge~ ♥ The first time, we were all chanting, "One more time! One more time!" Hehe. We got Dippin' Dots and crummy food (nomnom Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough dots. Not-so-nom to the so-called "chicken stix" I ate. :P), and I waited below while everyone else committed suicide on The Plunge and Point of No Return. The Stingray is amazing too! My brother and I were holding a tube, I remember getting nervous because I was facing backwards and it looked steep, and my brother said in a soothing way, "It's going to be all right." Aww. ;; My brother can be really sweet like that sometimes. Anyway, we made the drop and it was a ton of fun. Definitely one of my favorites even if we had to cut out of line twice due to the length. XD

Note to self: next time, bring shoes 'cause wearing your wet watershoes inside a restaurant is not fun. :P We went to Famous Dave's for dinner (whose mascot is a cannibalistic pig) and Brianna, Matt and I doodled wicked atrocities all over the coloring paper until our orders arrived. It was a BBQ restaurant, and I was already feeling pretty full, so all I had was a basket of fries and some ice-cold water. Nomnomnom. The moon was gorgeous that night too. I always felt like it was an alternative version of Earth, with all the gray spots being the continents such as Europe and South America. Though tonight I saw a couple of eyes and a face too. Kinda creepy and mesmerizing in a way, though thankfully nothing like Majora's moon. XD

Who needs Internet when I'm having fun? Remind me to import Phantom of the Opera and the second Cranberries CD on my computer. I've been loading a ton of stuff from the Dolan music library and all the Talking Heads/Josh Groban/various 80s stuff is gonna do me good when I get home! They even have Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Beethoven's Last Night!"

Good news: The B/W mascots kick the pants out of Dialga & Palkia by a million miles. I think they look awesome because they look like Digimon. :o

Bad news: Rest in peace, Gary Coleman. D:

I thought it was a rumor. I was hoping it was a rumor. But it looks like Earthbound is not going to be released on Virtual Console. :(

EB was, and will continue to be, withheld due to legal issues. It doesn't matter what anyone's opinions are on copyright law or fair use; the fact is that Nintendo's lawyers have a huge amount of leverage over the release of any game they're uncomfortable with, and EarthBound made them pretty uncomfortable. As long as NCL remains unwilling to approve changes to the game, EarthBound will stay buried.

Legal issues? What legal issues? Oh, pop culture references. Constant tributes to the Beatles. Trademarks and all that craziness. The naming screen can't even be a bizarre mix of the Monty Python theme being played at various speeds. D:

Oh well. It's not too late to join our cult.

*sigh* I could use Poo/Paula to cheer me up. I've been thinking about them today. And various other Mother 2 pairings I like and the darlings in them. ;; Oh Chosen Four! How I love thee! *whimper* You'll be in my heart, always... gosh this is getting sappy. XD

And Tony. Gosh, adorable gay stalker you.

I've got everyone's requests! I don't know what good program I can use to sing and record though. I know there's definitely some out there. :o I just don't want to narrate on Windows Movie Maker again 'cause it got all staticy. D: And gods, I always get messed up trying to fiddle with LJ's calling services so that's why I rarely (if at all) make voice posts. I hate phones. @.@;;; There's also the matter of singing in private 'cause I don't want to disturb other college kids. Recommendations? Maybe I'm being picky, but I just wanna sound my best and not screech static by being too close to the recording device. XDDD;;;

I believe this is the best AMV I've made yet! *__________________* Now go wibble at the Red/Lucas goodness, nomnomnom. ♥

Don't forget the Poo/Paula contest extension ends on the 12th~ ♥