Ignorance Kills**

I met a wonderful man this past weekend.

Well not, met met. I came across his blog at LiveJournal. And connected to him through his words.

Bill writes in the most extraordinary way, his deviantArt gallery is scintillatingly beautiful to read.

Bill is also dying.

(as are we all).

Bill has brain cancer and Aids.


Oh boy, aren't you happyhappy you're a perfectly placed shiny, little button on Tannie's superbly tailored, crimpolene rokkie*** now?

Bill doesn't ask anyone for sympathy and words are his therapy. Bill also seems to be ecstatically happy with the love of his life, his boyfriend Brody. Yes, Bill's gay, get over it.

And that's where things get complicated. I've been raving on and on about this guy's writing, but why is it that people cannot see beyond the gayness? Why is it that they can only accept that his writing is worthy of merit when I say that between his double whammy of illnesses he managed to punt the Gaza cause, which is an issue close the hearts of most of the people I've spoken about Bill to? Is the fact that he can care about one of "ours" the only reason he is worth his weight as a human being and in turn worthy of our prayers? That's just extreme selfishness and self absorption. Another sickening trend I've noticed is that people can have a so what attitude about his illnesses, as though he deserves it BECAUSE he is gay.

I cannot accept this. How many heterosexual people could handle the idea of having both Aids and brain cancer? Who are you to judge him as a human being based on his sexual orientation? Not only gay people get Aids, anyone and everyone can. Surely judging is God's realm? So what if his illnesses are his "punishment"? If Bill is gay, how does that diminish from his suffering? How convinced are you that you won't be punished, with all your self righteous flaming heterosexuality, on the other side?

The point of this post is: God is not the monopoly of a select few. There is only one God, and He belongs to everyone. This same one God created Muslims, Jews, Christians,Hindus, Agnostics, Wiccans (lulz, inside joke here for Lily), black people, white people, in between reticulant-ish coloured people, and accountants. He created us all, with the same amount of dedication, care and love.Who are we to deny showing love, care and compassion to others of God's creation too?

Read his posts about Brody, who in my opinion seems like an equally remarkable human being, he looks after Bill and now that Bill is really sick, blogs for him too. How many people can claim to have been loved to that extent, straight or gay or asexual? Lust aside, is the love that they share, not the same human love and affection that every person on earth desires?

I don't see why people find the need to judge other people when they have not one smidgeon of understanding of what a person must be going through. I'm not sure I want such judgemental people in my life and my world. I wish the blinkers were removed before they ran their race.

Millions of people will stand on Arafat and ask for forgiveness in a few hours. I hope someone's prayer for us to retrace our roots and return to our divinely ordained path as a people with educated, open minds who think before we blab, people who know that to judge is not what our religion teaches us, is answered.

We are not alone in this world, we are representatives of our religion, behaving like bigots only reinforces stereotypes of barbarism. And we know were saved from that.


Edna Ferber, author of So Big (read the book!...or watch the movie, with Bette Davis (I'm a major movie geek, TCM is quality viewing)) once famously said, "A closed mind is a dying mind." Think about that. Use the minds you've been given.

Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage.
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**Alternative post title was Bill's to Pay.
*** rokkie= Afrikaans, diminutive form for dress, ie little dress.Tannie= Aunt

Smacks of Wisdom

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."
Kurt Cobain

[rant] Blaaaaah Blaaaaah [/rant]

Apparently, the human spirit possesses a capacity to withhold much under extreme duress. How often do people wonder what their inner tensile strength is? Or do people sit about like the Talamasca and watch and wait and are always there waiting for impending doom? So that they can cash in their bonus points for vouchers on the pre-prayed system when they've accumulated enough?

There's got to be nothing more irritating than religious zealots who believe they have a God ordained moral right to pontificate purely because of they claim they're in the possession of the title deeds for the monopoly on Truth. But whilst they spend a lot of their time in physical prayer, their minds are busy praying to the Great God of Materialism. Not only do these people meet the basic minimum requirement in the prayer stats but they surpass it with adding all the optional extra ones. And they let you know it as well.

Strange thing is, these people cannot understand why they're classified as resolutely Blaaaaahnian by yours truly. But I, and most people with a conscience I suppose, find it extremely offensive when the aforementioned types pay their staff minimum wages, or less. Work them to the bone as well, declaring that they need to get their money's worth out. I find it offensive as well when staff complain about their pay that they get told to pray. Prayer's one thing, inflation and reality quite another. If you can buy your daughter a Mini Cooper S as a birthday present, then please don't preach the value and importance of living a simple life.

Hypocrisy rears it's ugly head all the time. I cannot reconcile the social hypocrisy of being the height of piety to the world, but callously oppressing any underlings and not having any qualms about. If piety means anything, be a decent human being without the religious fluff attached. Attempting to be decent will at least add a bit of practice to the preaching.

The Blogosphere 'conspiracists' are probably wondering what inspired this post.Well, lots of things have, but I think the most relevant to these parts is that while I've been AWOL, I have been receiving odd bits of "soul-saving" advice from the Association of Anonymous twits. And no, I will not renounce my Satinic (sic) ways. Bitches.

I'm back with a vengeance baby.Next post in two months :P
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I still <3 Billy of the 90s !

As if Zeitgeist wasn't bad enough.

As if this wasn't the single most offensive picture of all of 2007:


And then just when I thought you couldn't go any lower than shagging Courtney, he goes and does this:



WTF?!
Why did self respect die with the 90s?

Sadness :/
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Remember,Remember...

I am usually one of the first people to warn against the dangers of reductionist theories when it comes to history.

But...

To all the rebels,the idealists, the believers in the mantra of: what we sow today we reap tomorrow,the anarchists, the ones who are willing to fight for your causes without fear. To anyone who thinks our days of fighting for freedom are over(and to those who believe they're not),to anyone who is willing to sacrifice themselves to make a difference.

To anyone who believes in the power of the greater good of the people outweighing the corruption and oppression of governments the world over.To anyone who believes in the importance of the freedom and independance of the media. To all those who believe that they contribute to educating people about the importance of all of the above.To anyone with an ounce of Romanticism and poetic depth left about their souls,





Happy Guy Fawkes to all of you!

She who advocates anarchy without violence
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Smells like Eid Spirit

This is the Ramadaan-Eid post. The sort of mention it lest you feel like you've missed an important obligation of sorts (guilt trip into submission type) one.

Warning: Semi-vacuous rambling to follow.

I kept all my fasts, helped around like the domesticated pet that I am, and generally behaved. I'm almost disqualified from the realm of childhood due to the fact that I have a signed employment contract. But I'm still young enough (for now) to be considered Eidi-worthy. I've missed several birthdays and anniversaries tags in between. One of which was Anne Rice's on the 4 October. Happy Birthday bitch, lotsa love, rah*.

Following the whatseemstobeaanannualRamadaan spider spotting spree (the one I described last year was about the same size), herewith are the pictures (circa Ramadaan 2007) of the mofo I somehow found chilling out on my room door.

(Apologies for the quality, it was the best I could do considering the semi-darkness and not wanting to go paparazzi on the Celebrity Spider's ass.)





I just left it alone as usual, it vanished, Lord knows where to, but it did. I haven't seen it since, and neither have I spawned any extra superpowers. Well at least not any more than the ones I already possess.

Re: Facebook. It bloody sucks, it's glorified email. (We will not go into details regarding it's complexity to use and the fact that I can barely use the freaking thing or the way it clogs your inbox with merde soos Person X has inhaled click this link to view more.; Person Y has exhaled click this link to view more.)I've possessed it for the last week and I am dubious as to it's importance on the Internet and life in general. And as for all the "omg it's so kewl, you can liek write on people's walls and stuff!!!!! you HAVE to get Facebook". It is my very un-humble opinion that the wall phenom is nothing more than Instant Messaging for voyeurs. (I just don't respond to stupid messages and I don't have lots of time to spare, so I'll reply sometime or the other if you left a non-stupid message)

Perhaps weblife's greatest irony is that the very same people who insist you get with the web 2.0 vibe, have /quit Facebook (including the same people who create your account -_-). There are also other twits who insist on telling you how amazing it is, and who begged you to get on,but they have absolutely no interaction with you (according to quite a few of my Facebook baccalaureates this is quite de rigueur, it's nothing personal (and I'm guilty to a certain extent of it too),which I suppose is fair enough). We've come to the conclusion that they've added you as a "friend" purely to increase their friend count.You serve no other purpose there.Shallow and fickle are not the only words I could think of to cover this trend.

I have stated this before, and I think I should restate my case.People who mean anything to anyone and who are of any importance and consequence in and to your life(be they people you know in real life or from the vast and infinite black and white pixels of the /Online Realm)...you don't need/shouldn't need a website to alert you to who they are. I made a mental list of some of these people the other day. And I am grateful to have these folk in my life in whatever form they take.

Okay, sure there've been obscure people from a life lived long ago, who've found me.Through a fake name and alles! Nice to see them, nice to know that they just needed to take one look at my display pic and see my 'name' for them to know that it could only ever be yours truly. But for all the miles and memories in between, is there anything left there to touch base with again? I certainly do not have the time or the will to want to write detailed biographical tales of all my major life epics spanning the last almost 2 and half decades.And I don't suppose they do either.

My point is, is that whilst some people are just merely acquaintances they find themselves on your list of friends as though they are of integral importance to your life. It might be a matter of semantics, but queen_Lestat is not the sort to leave such matters be. She tends to suffer from a debilitating syndrome called Overthought. Most of her inner circle, would agree that this condition is better than Underthought, though that's a whole other debate. Ponder and Muse... sounds like a good name for a cosmetic brand./me trademarks it!

But ye, web 2.0 is a capricious vagrant, with about as much ability to discern between antipodean elements as a drunk-whilst-parallel-parking-female-on-a-cell phone. The queen Declareth it such.

I should call this post finito now. I've infringed on my own disclaimer.

I assume I need no conclusion.
/quit
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PS (there's possibly only 5 people reading this now, who will instinctively know where *that's* adapted from.Those 5 are not on Facebook ;) )

I AM...

...one of those weird Japanese manga-style horror movies, sans subtitles....
No one really gets the point of it all, but everyone still recommends you watch it.

*sighness*
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Oh PS and to the fucktard army, before you start,I do watch those movies.For your purposes substitute Bollywood Sudden Song and Dance Sequences out of nowhere for Japanese.

*credits to Wesley for the title in it's original form, and to Nicky and Nick who saved the Shire with me :)

New Post

*sigh*

29 hours straight hours of insomnia and counting...

First Year students should be shot.

Discovered this week with shock-horror-awe that our little department has 10 000 odd students in it across the board and various courses. WTF...Rhodes University has like 6000 students in their ENTIRE armoury. And to think hey, 10 000 student numbers, email addresses, bank details, phone numbers, parents details etc etc are more or less( with varying degrees of difficulty) all at my disposal. *sigh* Sometimes, I think, in these awake hours that it's such a waste that I do not have criminal or stalker tendencies.

Could be fun.

More fun than having your head stuffed so far up some peoples' butts that it's emerging outta their mouths. Okay that was a disturbing image, but it's true for some people.

Spongebob's here to stay for a while, he makes me happy. He's honest and sweet; a sea dweller with simple values, big imagination and heart of gold.

The arthritis in my pinkie's acting up now because of the cold. Goodbye. Yes, Hamish I do have arthritis in one finger and no I am NOT over the hill...yet. Choice time now...Kafka, Eliot,Bronte (Charlotte),James, Sartre,or more rambling in other forms?

It was THE epitome of excellent output in the English Canon(whom I incidentally don't heart much) who said "Oh sleep!Oh gentle sleep! Nature’s soft nurse,how have I frighted thee,that thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down and steep my senses in forgetfulness? Why rather,sleep,liest thou in smoky cribs,upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,and hushed with buzzing night flies to thy slumber,than in the perfumed chambers of the great,under the canopies of costly state,and lulled with sound of sweetest melody?" Henry IV if I'm not mistaken. Extra point to whoever figures out the Act, Scene and if Henry IV is the correct option anyways. Too uncaring to Google, check it up if you must.

I think that was the worst thing I could've done now, the mind buzzes again. I really should amass enough of my arb thoughts and random bits of literary trivia into a compendium or some kind of reference device for myself. Years later I'll think of the weird moments of insomnia and lol to myself.I'm weird like that.Though of this I am completely sure "to sleep,perchance to dream, aye there's the rub."Hamlet III, i.

And that's not suprising, because every person on earth with an iota of English knowledge parades about quoting this section like a freaking Professor Emeritus of Literature. Screw you, you reject plebs. Pariahs of the literary world. The minute you start with your "To be or not to be..." bullshit I can and will tell you "No, you cannot and should not be...be gone".Twit. A twit is a pregnant goldfish, I told my students that last week, they laughed. whooohoooo brain power of the Blaaaaah species duly noted.

"I cried to dream again." said Caliban, and so vile was he and so reprehensible but did we not marvel when even a creature such as his drunken self would "not serve him, (because) he's not valiant." And yeah..Even Caliban placed a limit on the baseness and cruelty which was bestowed on him I guess.Even Caliban had his honour and his pride.

I ramble.
Night
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Pensées de le Esprit

لَا الشَّمْسُ يَنبَغِي لَهَا أَن تُدْرِكَ الْقَمَرَ وَلَا اللَّيْلُ سَابِقُ النَّهَارِ وَكُلٌّ فِي
فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ

"It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor does the night outstrip the day. They all float, each in an orbit."
Holy Qur'aan Surah Yaseen, Ayah 40 (Chapter 41, Verse 40)

Now I'm no great Islamic Scholar or Tafseer expert, but this particular verse always reminds me that there is a time and place for all things in life. Everything happens within it's own cycles as is meant to be. The world is a vast and complex space, despite the chaos humans create, there is a natural order and a logic which we will never understand.

The world and life as we know it is a miracle and a beauty. And I think that as human beings we tend to be so caught up in our own pettiness that we ignore the little things and our own insignificance in terms of the larger whole. Sometimes we might think we're on the wrong road or we've taken the longer route and wonder what if we'd turned right at the intersection instead of left. But that is because we're human and I doubt we ever truely know why we are where we are and for what reason.

I'm not too much of a fatalist, because I do believe that although there are some things which are destined to be, we do have a large hand in giving our destiny a kick start. You know, every time I hear the word ''destiny'' I see that pained, mock serious look on Brandon Flowers's face. That's beside the point, anyways, I really do feel that we are nothings merely part of the machinery of the universe, cogs in the wheel of life if you will. And we should appreciate where we are now and what we have because we are lucky enough to have a God out there who is Most Merciful.

Just a random thought which I had, thought I'd put it out to the jury since I'm not much of an autocrat.


WanderingWonderer
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Disclaimer
PS I know I'm probably going to get another lot of emails from various self righteous and parasitic imbeciles commenting on the nature of my previous post and now on this one, so I put the disclaimer out now and say please get a life. Some of us are real human beings (though judging by the species we'd much rather be elves or vampires).