[Ann]

[ursulabear]

My advice for working a terrible job is to not bottle everything up. It is super exhausting.

[ursulabear]

My Alice game won't run! I am going to cry!

[Steve]

(What IS an Alice game anyway?)

[Jordan~]

I think a computer game based on Alice in Wonderland or one of its film versions, Steve?

Google it, Ursula! Or tell me what's happening and maybe I'll know what to do. If it's on PC.

[ursulabear]

I fixed it. Thank god. I had to change a handful of settings on my lappy, but I fixed it.

Alice is a video game from American McGee, loosely based on the book. And it's my all time favourite video game. It's got gore, Victoriana, Chris Vrenna (of NIN and Rasputina), creepiness, and a mangy cat. Pretty much everything I love.

[queenofnerds]

Everyone at work is a little grrr today, not sure why really. I sorta want them to leave me alone!

[ursulabear]

I took a screencap from the library in Alice. These children things are everywhere. This level is really hard, too. Or maybe I am just terrible at video games. The text box says 'run' because the Card Guards (bad guys) are coming!

[Steve]

Ah - thank you: that explains everything now.

[Adam]

I overheard a conversation today of some girls talking about a friend of mine who received a rejection to study maths at Oxford this year. One of them said, "I'm glad she got rejected because we'd never hear the end of it if she got in." I chose not to say anything about it, and I used to think that when I left school I'd get away from this kind of petty squabbling, but I can see from previous posts on here that that isn't the case. As you say, Ann, "we can use this person to stand on so we look taller".

Steve, you could have put "...a way of which you would not be proud", but as Jordan says it's just a stylistic choice, not a rule.

[dwaink]

it probably isn't helpful for these situations (when did that every stop me) Buddhism teaches us that vexations like these people, are mirrors of our own flaws.

dwain

[ursulabear]

In Flames is coming to town. But the tickets are too expensive! I am so sad. In Flames is the epitome of Göteborg's meta; that I love so much.

[ursulabear]

My friend is telling me I should be more modest.
What is wrong with being a strong, confident woman?
Just because it's expected of me doesn't mean I do it.

[rainbowdash]

[ursulabear]

I somehow managed to see Peter Bjorn and John recently. It was a note worthy event for multiple reasons 1. I got out of the house 2. with my friend 3. at night 4. on the spur of the moment and 5. I got hit on by a guy in a kangol hat.

[Ann]

This is probably going to reveal far too much about my messed-up backwoods family than I should, but I'm so upset about it and I can't get it off my mind.

Much of my family (my grandmother's side) lives in Arkansas. They are the epitome of what everyone else hates about the US. I've only visited them once. My grandma's nephew, Troy, married a woman V, who already had a child, K. Troy and V had another child together (L) and the two of them are now 14 & 17 (I think, around there). When I visited, L was clearly the favorite. She is adorable and smart and sweet whereas the older one resembles her mother (not a positive thing) and was always being yelled at. Over the course of the past few months I've become aware of an atrocious situation that makes me sick to my stomach to think about and so SO angry at my grandmother.

When K was 13, she reported that she was being sexually abused by her step-dad (Troy). After some time, she and her sister were placed in foster care while a trial was held. Troy ADMITTED to “acting out sexually with (the victim),” (that's a quote from court documents). She accused him of, among other things, rape. This summer he was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years.

Now, my grandmother, and every single other adult in the family, has decided she's lying. No, not about the sexual abuse in general since he admitted to it, but to the rape. And because they think she's lying, they've decided to bully this poor girl to no end. She and her sister are in seperate foster homes, but they both have Facebooks. I'm friends with my grandmother & L, but not the rest of the family. Still, my grandmother is constantly posting on L's wall about how K lied and how one day she'll have to deal with the consequences and how she's a bad girl. I just saw my grandma's niece's Facebook, who posted something about how much she misses L but will have to hold her tongue about "that other one". These are all public posts that K and any of her friends can very well see. I am so horrified at my grandmother's actions. I can't believe that a man can admit that he was sexually inappropriate with his 13-year-old stepdaughter and still have the family take HIS side (INCLUDING K's mother!), accuse K of lying, and publicly bashing her. She's still a child. She was housed in an unsafe environment with a man who preyed on her. How could anyone think that publicly posting about how awful she is is the appropriate thing in this situation? I'm always a second away from going crazy on my grandma. Adults are bullying a little girl whose been abused. She's already in foster care, I don't think there's anything legal I can do. I just hope that K and L get out of this without ending up anything like their immediate family. Makes me so sick and sad.

[Weirdelves]

Oh that's a really nasty situation. My thoughts go out to you, P. Do what you think is right.

[Riv]

Ann, that's so awful. I'm very sorry for you and for K and L.

[Ann]

[Weirdelves]

Well, unless you wanna give your grandma a piece of your mind. I'm not sure how wise that'd be though