I found this explanation of he way society treats those unable to work while completing my Social Care degree. It is not my personal feeling. It was one of the more depressing parts of the course:As a disabled person you are unable to fulfil your expected role: work, produce, purchase, rinse , repeat. This is seen as a deviance from the norm, and a threat to the stability and welfare of wider society. Because of your disability you are permitted exemption from those duties, but only as long as you are genuinely ill (have a diagnosis/physical manifestation of your disease) and that you are trying your hardest to get well (showing signs of improvement, participating in programmes designed for improving your health.) http://amplify.com/u/dsq9 http://amplify.com/u/dsqa

Real Scientology, Real Scientologists.

I won’t fully recount here what the PAC RPF is like. At best it is a gulag where time stands still. The only thing that makes it bearable are the some of the dedicated staff there. Some had been on the program for seven years or more. That is seven years without a day off, no contact with wife or family, no music, twenty-minute meal breaks. A phone call to your parent’s on Christmas day. A day otherwise spent cleaning floors and toilets. For the most part the RPF is kept hidden from the public and staff. For the most part, we helped build sets for the Int events and furniture for the “Ideal Orgs”.

At one point, following an IAS event, the RPF was allowed to watch the video of the event where Tom Cruise receives the IAS medal and is proclaimed by DM as “the most dedicated Scientologist I know”. I looked over at the guy sitting next to me, a man who had worked on the ship with LRH, had been an SO member for over 25 years, who had been on the RPF for 6 years separated from his wife and family. Really? An actor who has been actively disseminating for a couple of years is the most dedicated Scientologist on the planet?

via markrathbun.wordpress.com

Eventually, some cult members encounter enough bullshit that it seems to act like smelling salts, and they wake up and start wondering how the hell they can get out of the mess they are in.

This is my first post on Amplify! #myfirstpost on another bloggy thing.. I have no idea why. Mainly "because its there" but this is nothing like climbing a mountain, obviously. http://amplify.com/u/d3sv

The Age of Uncertainty: Almost Lost Forever

via ageofuncertainty.blogspot.com

Found this thanks to @adders on Twitter. The very thought of someone dropping an old photo album into a bin.. how *could* they?

Huge Commonwealth Games cock-up leads to condoms blocking drains | Sport | The Guardian

The condom blockage follows an outbreak of gastrocolic problems such as diarrhoea among swimmers this week.

via guardian.co.uk

Is it me or is it weird how the wording makes it sound like the condom useage is related to the Delhi Belly?

Confidence, Power, Love

I have a few memories of being in some kind of choir in high school. It baffles me that I felt able to sing back then, surrounded by other people who could hit the notes and hold them, but years later I won't knowingly let anyone hear a single note. It really does seem that the words of one loved one eroded my belief in my voice so badly that even contradictions from my most loved today can't mend it.

Facebook/Synching mobiles

"pull the photos down from Facebook and put them on your phone. That would breach Facebook's terms of service." http://bit.ly/cDyIb6 but thats what my blackberry does! I'm deleting Farcebook for Blackberry.

Parents, dont let your kids be assholes.

"'I feel like no-one': Girl, 12, dies in father's arms from mystery condition after being tormented by school bullies"

http://bit.ly/bfoEaK

from @stonewalluk

The key information for Stonewall's interest here was that the bullying included calling the girl a lesbian.

When I picked my kid up from junior school yesterday, two boys jogged past me. They were taunting each other with "You're gay!" "No, you're gay" in dull voices, as if it was a routine they were both bored of but neither were willing to stop because the other would claim victory and be proved right.

It annoyed me, a lot.  I wanted to stop them both in their tracks and say something, anything to make them think. ("You say 'gay' like its a bad thing" ..  I tend to overestimate most kid's ability to understand my one-liners.)  But they were glassy-eyed, barely aware of what they were saying.  Maybe if their parents were there they woudn't have been shouting it.  Maybe their parents were the ones that led them to believe that 'gay' is bad and using it as an insult is just harmless fun, either by using such taunts themselves or by allowing it to go un-commented previously.  I still aren't sure whether it was a good thing or not that their parents weren't there. I don't know if I could have stopped myself from saying something to them. 

What was the last book you read?

I'm reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson right now, and really enjoying it. I play Second Life, and it is fun seeing the parallels between The Street and the Grid. Before that, I read Burning Chrome by William Gibson. Never before have I been brought to tears by a science fiction story. I need to read Neuromancer, but a friend recently sent me the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson, and then there is my college reading list.. sigh!

Ask me anything

Decisions...

I used to have another blog, which I was keeping for blogging about my SL shop/business.  The problem was that I didn't really have much of one to blog about.  So I scheduled the blog for deletion, and decided to keep just this one.

The problem is, it seems I'm using this one for personal stuff and SL photography, which his going to lead to stuff like Scientology/Chanology/Anonymous, and other serious stuff I might like to comment on now and then, getting lost. 

So, my solution is - let the deletion take its course, decide which topic I'm going to discuss here, and make a new blog to carry the rest.  Step 1 - Decide what to use this blog for. Step 2 - Think of a new name for my other blog.

I hade decision-making.

I thought I'd made the decision there. For a moment.  I posted on my Tumblr that I'd be using that for the serious grown up stuff.  But now I don't know.. I think I'll make another blogger blog after all.

Last thoughts on this (heh. theoretically):  The reason I'm having such trouble deciding whether to blog frivolous gaming related and personal stuff seperately from the serious stuff and how to go about organising that is that I take the serious stuff personally!

Day 5 - Real Life Sucked Too Bad

I missed my proper Day 5 yesterday.   We had family visiting, and while they were here our kid went off on one, a real screaming sobbing drama fit.  I can be fragile about things like being insulted and screamed at and not trusted by my own ten year old, and this was no exception. Once our guests had gone I took my meds and retreated to bed with a cat and a book.

We are likely to have the same problem today. Whether I get any college work done or not probably depends on the degree of drama and screaming.  Whether I get a photo done today depends on whether I get enough college work done.

Scientology v. The Internet: the battle continues

"If you imagine 40-50 Scientologists posting on the Internet every few days, we’ll just run the SP’s right off the system. It will be quite simple, actually."

Scientology GO/OSA cultist Elaine Siegel announces attack on the Internet

This isn’t new, but they are still at it, as seen in this recently liberated email concerning methods of mitigating possible damage from Panorama's latest Scientology documentary "The Secrets of Scientology"

(SP = Suppressive Person - anyone critical of Scientology.  Scientology also teaches that SPs are generally intollerant and will seek to destroy anything good in the world. See here - if you dissagree with Scientology, you are antisocial personality and are no better than Hitler.)

Calamity, Day 4 of 365 - Calypso

Calamity, Day 4 of 365 - Calypso, originally uploaded by CalamityK.

Randomly playing with Elements filters resulted in something that reminded me of a Suzanne Vega song.

Piercing - Bliensen + MaiTai - Emotional Piercing slurl.com/secondlife/Horst/34/164/22

Hair - I modded Ash Ash from Analog dog (I'm so going back THERE when I get my pocket money) slurl.com/secondlife/Analog%20Dog%20Hair/56/132/23

Eyes - Base: Dulce Secrets ::DS:: Eyes 06 by AnneAlyce Maertens slurl.com/secondlife/Kissena%20Park/159/206/22
Eyes - Prim "contacts": [OMFG] Eyes of Luna by Perefim Cao (shop now closed)

Skin - -Belleza- Belle Pale Silver Rubies slurl.com/secondlife/Belleza/128/128/22
.. with Skinthesis - Eyeliner - Walk Like An Egyptian (possibly a freebie or an offer) slurl.com/secondlife/Ode/102/188/776