viedma: I will rule the world! Emperor Cupcake! (Abaddon is rly neat!)
Bill Rebane, Moviemaker and Feminist ([personal profile] viedma) wrote2008-08-29 11:33 pm

Random stuff that happened this week

This is how I felt after I watched Obama's speech last night ...


(thanks to [livejournal.com profile] skywardprodigal, I saw it in her LJ 1st)


Thinking about last night, I had one of those little epiphanies you get while you're doing errands that seem really profound until you start to write it down. I feel like the last and maybe the saddest victim of the last decade is hope. A lot of people on LJ are skeptical of Obama, and why shouldn't we be? We've spent not just the last 8 years, but really since Reagan we've been told that government is the enemy, it's crooked, it can't do anything right. And really, they've been doing their damnedest to prove their point. (I like Rachel Maddow's line: If you don't believe in government, stop running one.) It appeals to our (and by 'our' I mean 'my') cynical nature that nothing can ever get better. And when someone tells you that things could get better if we worked together and had hope in a brighter future, that's a pretty big target ripe for ridicule. I feel like people are afraid to try anything because it'll result in failure. Of course it's hard to imagine us failing moar harder than we already have. But if you start out a project with no faith in yourself that you will succeed because you are afraid of failure, you're not giving yourself much a chance. That's not politics, that's just life. I'm not hoping for miracles, I just want us to suck less because we can do better than this and I believe a lot of people feel the same way. Yep, definitely sounded better in my head.

Vali and I keep watching the episode of Spaced called 'Art': job interviews from hell, going to see your ex-boy/girlfriend's new bit of performance art, zombies, twiglets, violence, loads of cheap speed, what's not to like? It's scratching an itch we've got somewhere for this kind of thing. I love Vali's fanon that Vulva was verbally abusive to Brian only to shake him out of his state of complacency, is trufax. Now I'm showing Vali Batman: The Animated Series and so far she's likin' it. Keen.

A couple of days ago I was adding a couple of veg-friendly links when I found myself on a librarian's guide to vegan websites, which led me to I Can't Believe It's Vegan. It does my black heart glad to know that Froot Loops are vegan, as they were my favorite guilty pleasure cereal when I was in college. Anyway, I went to the main site to see what People for Euthanizing Tiny Animals was up to lately, when I see Alicia Silverstone's all-nude testimonial to vegetarianism. And yes, she is very pretty, but how much cooler would it be to see James Cromwell or Forrest Whitaker do the same ad, same way? Coming up out of the pool, all resplendent with their vegan naughty bits? Actually, ever since I thought that I can't unsee it, and it makes me smile every time.

The first time I tried diet pepsi with ginseng it was a miracle. I could focus, Vali said I looked cuter, etc. Then I started buying it by the 12 pack, and I find out very quickly that a little is good, a lot makes me completely fucking manic. I have no direction, no game plan, but at least I have LOTS AND LOTS OF ENERGY to do it in. Am freecyling [livejournal.com profile] annlarimer the unused portion and hope that it doesn't make her head blow up.

[identity profile] biichan.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
... dude. I don't know about profound, but you're right about people being scared to hope. I know I've been.

[identity profile] viedma.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
I started thinking about this after I saw the Obama-as-The-Master icons here and there. I thought it was funny at first, then I got a little sad. A man thinks and talks in complete sentences and right away we assume he must be evil. *sigh*

I know I'm talking about politicians here, but I still think it's okay to be idealistic, and at least work to make things better even if the end result isn't exactly what you hoped . /Pollyanna

[identity profile] vulgarweed.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
OMG that video. I saw that on DU last night and couldn't.stop.watching.it.

Promise me you won't put it behind a cut no matter who bitches. XD

My feelings too. Hope sits on me more awkwardly than cynicism, but what is change but the breaking of habits?

Icon! <3

[identity profile] viedma.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 06:06 am (UTC)(link)
Promise me you won't put it behind a cut no matter who bitches. XD

Oh, no fear! I have ways of dealing with malcontents. (http://whatisrowsdower.ytmnd.com/)

Me too, re hope, cynicism, etc. A politician appealing to our better natures by getting him elected should expect a little skepticism, and yet I still welcome someone checking me from going into a downward slide into hopelessness and despair. It's good to hear someone in a leadership position saying we can do better.

[identity profile] airie-fairy.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
I'll never again be the kind of person who has a lot of expectations when it comes to that outside of my own efforts, but even my level of cynicism gets annoyed at people who don't even try to make at least a personal effort and just dismiss any hint of humanitarian/idealistic effort as laughable.

I really gotta get on more Spaced; the first episode was fun. And YAY for you getting her into that Batman! It is god among Batmans and comic-related things and just damn good story-telling in general. It's why I'm the freak who hasn't been able to shut up for weeks now that I am.

I'm still intrigued that something inspired Alicia Silverstone to agree to nudity.

[identity profile] viedma.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
I'm still intrigued that something inspired Alicia Silverstone to agree to nudity.

Where is that thing...*googles*...Ah, there she be, in all her nakedity. (http://www.peta.org/feat/alicia_psa/index.asp</a)

[identity profile] airie-fairy.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
Nice. Slim, but I can't see any bones poking through.

[identity profile] viedma.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I know. I can see her in profile and everything! Her career in Hollywood is officially over.
ext_52676: (Default)

[identity profile] swankyfunk.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 05:55 am (UTC)(link)
All aboard the Obamobile!

[identity profile] viedma.livejournal.com 2008-08-30 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
I want there to be a Obama-signal that looks just like this (http://www.politicalshop.com/sku/OBAMASET6.jpg).
ext_6373: A swan and a ballerina from an old children's book about ballet, captioned SWAN! (Default)

[identity profile] annlarimer.livejournal.com 2008-08-31 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
We've spent not just the last 8 years, but really since Reagan we've been told that government is the enemy, it's crooked, it can't do anything right.

I was gonna say since Nixon, but then I remembered that, despite the crimes and racism and desire to murder the nation's children when they refused to wear neckties, he was actually competent.