Don't Believe Everything You Think

Dorothy... and Feminism

2008-03-31T22:55:00.002-04:00

While trying to remember what I was going to do next, my boyfriend said to me, "your teacher was an idiot!" "What teacher?" I replied. "The one who told you not to write the book report." What the hell was he talking about? Suddenly, it dawned on me. He was referring to a story I told him a couple of weeks ago, about an experience I had in 6th grade, which of course was ages ago. Anyhow, I told him about an interaction I had with my teacher regarding a book report. The assignment was to read a biography and write a "book report" on the person we "learned" about. When the class went to the library, all of the kids scattered to find a biography of someone that they liked. Some kids picked the usual historical political figures, such as Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Other kids chose movie stars and musicians, like Madonna and Macaulay Culkin. I, on the other hand, chose L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, as well as a bunch of other "Oz" stories. I was just fascinated by the movie, and had read the book as well. I was extremely excited to come across the biography of the guy who wrote The Wizard of Oz.
This is where it turns crazy. My teacher sneered back at me saying, "why would you ever pick him? Why not pick someone more famous?". She spewed out a bunch of nonsense similar to this. Truthfully, I was humiliated. So humiliated in fact, that here I still remember almost two decades later. But I didn't give in to her idiocy... I wrote about him anyway.
Truth be told, I don't remember much of anything that I wrote in that report. But that's okay, because today is the day that I rediscovered L. Frank Baum, and I'm glad. His stories, particularly The Wizard of Oz, are full of allegories. The Wizard of Oz is influenced many ideas, including feminism, which is really cool, especially seeing the book was written at the turn of the 20th century. There is some interesting reading to be had on the subject, so check it out here and here! There's plenty more out there also. Yah! for Dorothy the Superhero and The Wicked Witch of the West as the Evil Villian!

TICKETS!

2008-03-31T19:19:00.003-04:00

I just managed to get tickets to my favor ite team! Yeah!!!!! Happy day!

Wireless What?

2008-03-31T16:07:00.002-04:00

I have to confess that I bought my first ever notebook computer only last month. It's a Dell Inspiron 1501, and although it received average reviews, it totally suits my personal needs. I did, however, run into a little snag connecting to certain wireless networks. I figured it was my idiocy regarding networking that created the problem, but I asked several tech people at work, and they both said something to the effect of, "really? I don't know."
Well, what the hell? My problem is this. I work for an organization that has several locations, of which I split my work time between two. Location A has a secured wireless network, where employees can enter a password and be connected to the network. Location B has an unsecured wireless network, which is available for public use. The problem is that whoever set up the networks used the same exact name for each location. But because they don't have the same settings, it's a mess every time I try to connect. I have to go in and configure the security settings each time I work at a different location.
Why not name the networks by location? This is getting to be a drag.

Chelsea's "brave" response

2008-03-30T14:37:00.003-04:00

After thinking about this for days, I've decided that I have not jumped on the "Chelsea is a hero" bandwagon regarding her response to a college student asking her about her father's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Apparently, a student at Butler University in Indianapolis asked Chelsea if her mother's credibility had been harmed by her father's affair with Lewinsky. Chelsea responded that no one had asked her that before, and that it was none of their business. On first glance by many, this seemed to be a strong and bold reply. However, I disagree. Chelsea is no longer a teenager with braces living in the White House with her mom and dad. In fact, she is a twenty-eight year old woman with an undergraduate degree from Stanford and a graduate degree from Oxford. She is no longer a little girl who needs to be protected. While I understand that her father's affair surely affected her personally, the choice to campaign for her mother negates her wish to discuss things she would rather not talk about. The choice to NOT campaign for her mother would have allowed her to legitimately opt out of discussing these events. Her choice to campaign, however, changes things. Even if she didn't choose to answer the question, her response to the student that "...I do not think it is any of your business" is questionable. It seems that it IS our business because the events in question happened in the White House and certainly affected the political landscape. I, for one, am hesitant to place Hillary Clinton in the position of the President of the United States due to these Clinton shenanigans.