The Beadbonny Ash

( Read more... )

SOPA and PIPA were halted by online demonstrations, but ACTA has gone through--and in secret. Poland is protesting it--there are photos of members of the Polish government holding Guy Fawkes masks over their faces in protest. Here's the most helpful article I've found on ACTA.

While SOPA and PIPA sought to change U.S. law by forcing American Internet service providers to block domain names of websites believed to be engaging in online piracy, ACTA seeks to implement existing U.S. copyright law in countries where copyright enforcement is less stringent.

... Sean Flynn, a professor of intellectual property law at American University, said ACTA is not as "draconian" as the pending U.S. legislation, calling the treaty "SOPA light." Some of its most troubling measures -- such as a requirement that Internet service providers suspend service to customers caught downloading copyrighted works, known as the "three strikes" rule -- have been stripped from the agreement, he said.

But other experts argue that ACTA is still problematic.

"ACTA contains new potential obligations for Internet intermediaries, requiring them to police the Internet and their users, which in turn pose significant concerns for citizens' privacy, freedom of expression, and fair use rights," Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a blog post last fall.

... ACTA is not the only anti-piracy treaty raising concerns. Some experts fear the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) may include intellectual property measures more restrictive than those in ACTA. But public information about the latter treaty is vague because it is also being negotiated in secret, experts say.

It was cold and rainy and very very blahhh all day, and then suddenly at about 7 PM (when i was going to night class) it warmed all the way up to 50-something. We got out of night class two hours early, at 9, and it was still lovely out. So when I got home, I grabbed my keys, cell phone, and flashlight and took a walk. I went up through the graveyard--startled 3 deer there, too. The city lights were reflecting off of the cloudy sky and made it bright enough that once my eyes adjusted I didn't need the flashlight--it was as good as moonlit outside. I could see all the stones quite clearly, and some of them even shone in the light. So I'm walking up the hill, singing (of course) about resurrection, surrounded by these gravestones, standing up high against a surprisingly bright sky. It was so--cheerful! The most cheerful I think a graveyard has ever looked to me, and it was night! It was like all the people who were there were happy with me. It was strangely communal, alone in the graveyard. Me and the stones, all reaching for the sky and laughing.

Then I started back down the hill and there was a rainshower and I got rather wet, but I didn't mind. Told Priya when I got back, I should've just taken some soap with me--could've avoided taking a shower when I got back!

I had a lovely birthday. Priya, Sally, Brad, Andrea and I went to Della Noza (delicious pizza place) for dinner and chatted. Then Brad brought out this caky-bready stuff (a bit like a cross between angel food cake and pound cake) and stuck three lit matches on top for me to blow out, and they sang happy birthday. Sally gave me a blank book with adorable comics of cats on it and a Sir Peter Wimsey mystery. Then Priya, Sally, Andrea and I went back to our place and played apples to apples (at last!). Sally had someplace to be, so Andrea and Priya and I played Phase 10. Then I drove Andrea back to her car. It's raining out, and starting to freeze onto the roads. I was sliding stopping at one of the red lights. She's going to drive to--I think she said Dayton--tonight to spend the weekend with her husband, and I'm a bit worried about her driving in freezing rain.

Some fun quotes from the evening:
(we're discussing how haunted Ohio U and OH in general are supposed to be:)
Brad: Somebody I know who works at a museum in Ohio said she saw a ghost possum there once!
Ashley: No, no! It was only playing dead!

*Sally goes to leave and gives me a hug*
Priya: Sally! You should hug me too!
Ashley: Priya doesn't hint. She commands!

*Andrea makes a silly mistake playing Phase 10*
Andrea: It's unsafe to play gaves with broken equipment. Equipment includes the brain.

*playing Phase 10 (a game of "runs" and "sets") we kept joking about "having the runs"*
Priya: Oh no, now I have to get a run of 7!
Andrea: Oh, the runs are much easier.
Ashley: Yeah, but Priya doesn't like to run.
Andrea: Well, I'd much rather run than set.

Earlier today, going to the costume shop to get masks for the masquerade dance next Saturday [I don't remember the rest of the convo]:
Emily: So this costume party is a blessing in disguise!

I tell you, when this quarter ends I am going to send an email to everybody in my creative writing workshop and thank them for being such great human beings. I've been worrying for the last week and a half about having this piece reviewed, and (surprise surprise) I had nothing to worry about. They all recognized that it was a genre piece, and while the prof did mention briefly the stylistic stuff that I knew she wouldn't like, what they all dwelt on was what they liked and what they wanted more of. They liked the really emotional moments and the concept of the main character speaking the language of the birds, and the magical help they gave her, and the confrontations with the head cook and the doctor... The prof said a couple of times that she loved the parts that were, she felt, characteristically "Ashley" and she wanted more of them--more depth, more length, more emotion. Totally not the reaction I had expected, though I was of course thrilled. They liked the long descriptions I gave of, for instance, the manor kitchen, and wanted even more--one of them said "I felt like I was there," which is the sort of thing my mom says about literature, and is the effect I was going for. They also gave me some great ideas for revision: make the climb down the tower and the walking through the woods in the dark more dangerous and difficult so that when she does assert herself to the cook and the doctor we can see that it's been coming on gradually. They also suggested I dig more deeply into my magical concept of her speaking the language of the birds--what does the birdtongue sound like? how do birds phrase things? how do they communicate gesturally? what are the species differences between birds? etc. I really should go more into the language of the birds, since it was an actual concept in the middle ages with some interesting implications. i had also been worrying that my female protagonist wasn't... well, feminist enough to suit a modern audience, but they loved how she was asserting herself and a couple of them referred to her a couple of times as being powerful. so that was reassuring.

i'm sort of blathering on now, so I'll close. but I was just so happy and excited about this I wanted to blog before bed. :)

Also: I have exactly 39 more minutes to be 25 years old before I have to enter my second quarter century... :/

( Cut for an epic that may only be interesting to me :) )

Other notes:
* Dug through my trash and found the packaging for those jeans I bought online that didn't turn out to fit; returned them to Walmart
* Invited a couple people to go out for dinner and then come to my place and play Apples-2-Apples for my birthday tomorrow evening (I FINALLY get to open my A2A game! I got it like THREE CHRISTMASES AGO and haven't gotten to open it yet!)
* Am all caught up on homework *knock on wood*

Productive morning:
* Determined how to return jeans I ordered online that don't really fit
* Managed to get an appointment with a dentist (unfortunately, it's a FIFTY-MINUTE DRIVE. O_o Seriously? The nearest participating dentist in my the insurance discount plan given to me THROUGH THE SCHOOL is THIRTY-FIVE MILES from said school? Seriously? There are like THREE dentists within walking distance of my house? How come none of them are participating??)
* Called Dad to wish him a happy birthday!
* Figured out and scheduled 5 of the 6 credits of activities I need to do for 791 professional development
* Did my shoulder exercises
* Rescheduled my follow-up appointment with the doctor because my dept scheduled a meeting at that time and didn't tell us until this morning

Now I need to eat lunch so I can go in to school early and print out some things before class and TA meeting.

Today was the most physical day I've had since I moved in. :) Had a doctor's appointment for OMM (that's Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, not a meditative chant [and yes, I had to look the acronym up]) on my shoulder. She did a bunch of feeling around my joint and testing my coordination, reflexes, and strength. She thinks it's NOT neurological (yayz!) and NOT a slipped disk in my neck (also yayz!) and that I probably won't need an MRI (yayz!). She thinks it's the muscles that connect my scapula to various things, and she's given me some exercises to stretch them.

Some things I learned from the OMM doctor:
* My neck muscles are really tight. Well, as Mom agreed, I get THAT honestly...
* I'm having problems because I'm holding one arm up to use electronics (such as itouch and the computer mouse) b/c I'm right-dominant. I heard this as yet another doctor telling me I'm lopsided. lol
* Apparently, my arms are strong. (My response: "...Really?" All I could think of was Heather laughing her head off. :P )
* But my abs are even weaker than I thought: she had me hold a position a bit like a push-up but with my forearms completely on the floor, and I really couldn't hold it. She modified it so I could put my knees down and I STILL almost couldn't hold it. No WONDER I have so much trouble with the pilates my dance teacher is always getting us to do!

Speaking of dance, it was a lot of fun, and this group seems a little friendlier and more talkative than the last. And there's a GUY in it! He's a first-year grad student in orchestral conducting, and he said he's always wanted to take ballet, and this was his chance. :) However, I think I'm going to say something to him before next class: at the end of this last one he curtsied with the rest of us. :D

Okay, it is well past time to clean off tabs.

( Below the cut: a glimpse into the future, a thing called a thing, and the smallest known vertebrate! )

My pastor is preaching a series on idols the next couple of weeks, and he passed out this list of questions for us to mull over. I think these are good things to be asking yourself even if you're not Christian or belong to a religion. It really helps you to see what your priorities are in life and whether they are what they should be.

What am I most afraid of losing? What, if lost, would cause me to lose a desire to move forward?

What is my money primarily spent on outside of the necessities?

What do I complain about the most?

What makes me the happiest?

What do I look forward to the most each day, week, month, or year?

What has caused me to become angry with God?

What causes me the most anxiety or stress?

What do I brag about the most?

What will I sacrifice the most for?

What do I want, crave or wish for more than anything else?

What gets priority? What do I organize my life around?

Whose approval am I seeking? Whom must I please?

What in life do I have to control?

What comfort or security do I treasure most?

I'm tempted to fill this thing out like a meme!