A plateful of cookies

So Campbell Live, a post-news opinion/fluff show did an informal poll last night asking whether New Zealanders supported same sex marriage. This is relevant because yesterday the Marriage Equality act was drawn from the ballot box to be discussed and voted upon next month.
The results were a disappointing 42% in favour and 58% against. However, that was an informal poll weighted towards those who don't immediately switch channels after watching the news and who cared enough to text in. There may have been some voting no because of how TV3 used 'same sex marriage' rather than 'marriage equality'. Other polls, including a formal one, have 63% in favour, 6% undecided and 31% opposed, with the undecideds flopping one way or another if only two options are given. The TV3 interview polling also had similar numbers, although they only interviewed like sixty people.

But it was really disheartening to see those numbers. I returned to some thoughts I had previously – that for all that New Zealand loves to project this warm and welcoming, clean, green and liberal image, there are still some nasty pockets of xenophobia, sexism, classism and other types bigotry lurking in our society. It was nice to see that most of the under-30s interviewed were all 'why not?' but quite a few of the older people interviewed were "I don't like that sort of thing, it doesn't belong here" in that supercilious tone that grates on my nerves.

I also wonder if the thing that discomforts people about marriage equality, is that the 'traditional' marriage has a man owning a woman (for... most of history actually) and having power over her, and what brings them to say that 'marriage should be between a man and a woman' is that the thought of a man owning another man is bizarre and why would one man submit to another? A woman having ownership and power over another woman is just as bizarre a thought and both of these situations are as inconceivable as the idea that maybe, perhaps, both parties in a marriage should have equal power and that marriage is a mutual agreement.

I'm just rambling now, but it honestly scares that this thought process might actually be valid for some people, tucked away deep in their minds, not even conscious of how they've reached the conclusion that marriage equality is a bad thing. I have no words as to how incredibly sad that the issue may just revolve around deep-set misogyny and sexism and not religion. I can respect religion, I think people who have unshakeable faith in their chosen belief are pretty cool and that people who fight with their beliefs, e.g. Picasso, are some of the most amazing people, but it isn't churches and religious institutions who are arguing whether or not marriage equality should be a thing.
It's government. It's a law that sets out how a contract between two people exclusively (for the moment) is to be constructed and what lawful and monetary benefits and privileges are obtained as a result of that contract and partnership. It's not asking for a god's blessing over a union, it's a legal binding of two otherwise unrelated people (well, first cousins maybe, depending on local laws and no one really keeps track of second cousins let alone third cousins) done primarily out of love. If it had a different name and you could get a similar contract with your flatmate or best friend, nearly no one would complain.

Marriage used to be a mechanism to ensure that a man had a child who was his that he could pass on his land to. It's not like that any more. We have wills and other complex legal documents that mean that blood and birthright isn't how property is divided any more. Some people don't even want to pass on property. Marriage, in the 'traditional' sense between a man and a woman, is socio-legally outdated.
And yes, I do hope that with marriage equality for homosexual couples there's move toward the concept of marriage beginning to step away from the sexual/romantic concept it currently is to something much more pragmatic that allows for best friends to be labelled as next of kin or long term house mates to manage their house and finances more easily or perhaps plural marriages. But marriage equality for all gender combinations is a good start.

First things first. I made this bag right at the beginning of the year.
( I use it every day now, pretty much. )

Did you notice the buttons? No? Well, I got a whole bunch of neat ones. That I will show you.
( I hope you don't have koumpounophobia. )


I promised photos of Tanpopo's cage progress. It's gotten a bit further than this, but it's pretty much permanently stalled at the moment...
( I have not witty cut text for this. Really. )

And now for something completely different.
I have a DS lite. It was getting scratched up in my handbag (as seen above) so I made a case for it.
( This is vaguely a step-by-step... )


The next project I did was because the bags we get given (for free) at course are ugly and everyone knows what type of course you're doing because they have the school emblazoned on the front.
( Cut, because they really are ugly. As is the carpet. )

Cake. Sponge. Cream. Jam. Pink Lemonade. I haven't really taken any more pictures of things I've made. (That are on my laptop.)
( Those photos are a lie, but not this cake! )

My parents and I had the most TERRIBLE luck when Children of Earth ran on TV2. It was on a 10:30 at night on a Wednesday, which is a bit too late if one intends to wake up at 6 the next morning, so we taped most of them.

First episode we completely missed, either to the fact I mis-read the day or that they changed the day at the last minute.
Then for the next two episodes, the video recorder chopped off the last five minutes because it ran past the time it said on the digital schedule thing.
For the fourth episode, my dad had left the TV on mute, so there was no sound. (Luckily, the episode had been subbed for the hearing impaired.)
And for the final one, we decided to stay up late, but if we hadn’t, the timer would have worked WONDERFULLY as I had figured out how to alter the digital schedule thing.

I almost ended up paying $50 for a Blu-Ray disc of CoE that I might not have been able to watch as well, except I nicely asked the lady behind the counter, and there was a regular version, so luck was with me then, fortunately.
So… it’s kind of pointless for me to do an episode by episode thing, seeing as I still haven’t gotten around to watching the DVD and what I did see was compromised in someway.
Thusly, in vaugely chronological order:

( Warning, spoilers. But you know, mostly vague ones that are comments really and not too specific. )

( All in all, I'm kind of glad that the current season of Doctor Who means that maybe Children of Earth never happened... )


( Hilarious ETA )

The entry on The Sarah Jane Adventures should be up in a couple of days? Hopefully.

In... lets see... just under NINE hours, I'll be taking one of the two exams for my course.
And if it weren't for the fact that I had a dream last night that I only answered five questions right in the 100-question long exam, I wouldn't be so nervous.

But that compounded by the fact they've pulled a switcheroo on us and are sitting the hardest first... and I have sucessfully procrastinated in revising until today and yesterday I'm asking for luck over the next three days.


Ugh, wish me luck~ (or at least wish me wakefulness)

Apparently young people do not read Greek myths any more. Which is why critics say Percy and the Lightning Thief is a good thing, as opposed to Hercules or Xena.
I am vaguely confused by this, as I knew who Zeus was before I was eight. Okay, so I can't name all the Argonauts but the fact that I know what the Elysian Fields are is apparently ODD.

Basically what I really wanted to say is: I'VE READ HERODOTUS, I KNOW MORE PLACE NAMES THAN YOU DO.

(This is vaguely aimed at the Doctor Who fandom/canon where appropriation of Greek names is rampant.)
(Also, the all-caps statement above does not apply to about half of my flist, as I know some of you could name all the Argonauts.)

The thing about the New Zealand news being obsessed with RTDs, or Ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, is that my mind AUTOMATICALLY translates that into Russel T Davies. So I end up wondering for a moment why they want to ban an UK screenwriter, who probably does have an Agenda (notably the gay and the green it seems) but is otherwise harmless, until my brain catches up and realises they're talking about alcohol. (Alcohol being the glue that seems to hold together kiwi social interactions (because no one has heard of having fun and getting along apparently), which kind of sucks when you are a person who sees no appeal in that tingly alcoholic taste.)

Thank you fandom.


In more serious news, I have to come up with a dessert for my final assessment. I have narrowed it down to a few options, but I'm being horribly wishy washy about it, so if you could please take the following poll:

[Poll #1541931]

I ask this now because I will need to give my tutor an equipment list within the next week.

80% or 24/30 (give or take a mark)
And the assessed items were very tasty. Although I got pinged for seasoning, yet again.

Here, have some music to celebrate.

( The Brunettes - If you Were Alien )

( Blood Red Shoes - It's Getting Boring by the Sea )

( Minuit - 25 BUCKS )

( Giana Factory - Bloody Game )

( Lucid 3 - AM Radio )

Usually I find it amusing when I rather accidentally stumble across something. This time I'm just kind of staring at the screen.

Firstly, I started off browsing some webcomics. Khaos Komix (even though the art style is messy... damn the story is compelling) was my start point and I got waylaid by Honeydew Syndrome (gorgeous art) and ended up reading Incubus Tales. (Not Safe For Work At ALL.) Perhaps a few others as well, but none memorable enough to link.

Anyway, one comic that kept up popping up in the links section of these webcomics was Crowfeathers, which, after looking at a few pages, I decided was not for me and decided to look at the non-comic pages to see if there was anything interesting.
The about page was rather interesting and in the music section there were two songs I know, one I didn't and couldn't be bothered to look up and one that sounded familiar.
So I looked that one up, got a load of hits for Cyndi Lauper, went to the Wikipedia disambiguation page and found out it rang a bell because I had probably looked it up while browsing stuff about the Prom(menade)s and because it's a tune used in a work by one of my ancestors.

Not that I really paid much attention to what was written about The Beggar's Opera and how it seems to be a pivotal piece in musical theatre history and a work of satire.
John Gay seems very witty though, so perhaps I should take more of an interest in my ancestor and read some of his poetry.

Rambling aside, 'All through the Night' is a rather pretty tune, if predictable, and quite nice with lyrics as well if it isn't a chorus version.

( Music under here )

(I swear, some countries have INSTANTLY identifiable sounds in their music. Doesn't the above just SCREAM 'BRITISH ISLES!' at you? Or at the very least 'THE COMMONWEALTH!'? I mean, I thought it was just New Zealand mainstream pop that it happened with, but apparently not...)

Also, I've also surmised, by virtue of jumping around to Discworld to check on the new TV adaption and then jumping to Neverwhere, that series like Midsomer Murders and Silent Witness and all sorts of those running serials are the life blood of British actors.
And I shouldn't get all excited because of the very same reason that one actor has appeared in Neverwhere, The Vicar of Dibley, My Family, Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, Waking the Dead, Doctor Who and Torchwood. Because most of those roles were for only one episode.