mercurial_g

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060306

Girl Genius is srsly the perfect story of "Adventure, Romance, and Mad Science", Agatha is the most awesome narrator ever, but even though she can solve her own problems - it's still romantic for Gil to scheme and threaten on her behalf anyways:



When I come to her, she will be safe, unharmed, and free. Because I will come to her - and if she is not-

I will DESTROY "Her Undying Majesty" - Melt what is left of your miserable island to SLAG - AND BOIL THE SEAS AROUND YOU FOR THE NEXT THOUSAND YEARS!

AU short microfic: what if Gellert had taken Albus prisoner:

Imperius

It was drowning - in a warm sweet sea, soothed under by siren song, but it was drowning.

Albus was his mind, and Albus was his will, his choices, Gryffindor Albus Dumbledore. Everything that was worth it, everything that he loves, even things that hurts, it was always important to Albus that his life was his own.

The responsiblity of a household was a hefty weight, but day after day, in the same house where his sister had killed his mother, the most profound pain, was his powerlessness. Nothing Albus knew could make anything better - and it had felt as if nothing he do would mater. He was suffocating and he was abandoned. Then Gellert Grindelwald had opened a window and pulled him up, and wanted him, they were going to free the world together - if only he wasn't so wrong.

But Albus was wrong, dropped down a deeper crevice, and bound ever more tightly by his mistakes.

Bound so tightly now, along with the world he dreamt of freeing, decades of summers ago - he fears that soon there would be nothing left.

Soft fingers traced the smile on his face, and the crowd around their carriage cheered as Gellert tilted Albus's face up for a quick kiss, not enough to tilt the crown set perfectly upon his auburn hair - not yet.

"Smile, my sweet Albus, this is what we've dreamt of in the beginning."

And hard as Albus had fought to hold on, the thoughts of his responsibilities slips from him like smooth beach sand, and what was left in place of his will was a compliant bliss.

We read the Harry Potter series through Harry's eyes, and hear through him, Dumbledore's version of events. Repeatedly, Dumbledore had said, that love is the one thing that Voldemort could never understand...why?

Voldemort almost have no capacity for love at all, because he's a sociopath. Grindelwald on the other hand, was a psychopath. Threaten two children with fire to control them, and the sociopath will run away the first chance he gets - but he's never going to forget this, and from then on he's going to obsess over never being that powerless again. The psychopath on the other hand, he's going to stick his hand in the fire! - because he refuses to let that fire have power over him! Sirius Black, in his youth, was psychopathic - at least much more this than sociopathic. It wasn't that Sirius didn't love his friends, but that loving the ones they love won't stop a psychopath from hurting the ones they love, anymore than any fear of fire will stop them from sticking their hand in to Show It Who Is Boss.

Voldemort would have problems being redeemed by love - because he couldn't love when he couldn't trust, when Voldemort lives in fear, his name means running away from death. The closest thing Voldie has is Bellatrix, whose devotion was the closet thing Voldie had to a mother's unconditional love - unconditional offer of protection.

Grindelwald had a problem with being redeemed by love - because unfortunately love does not cancel out anger, not when someone had as poor impulse control as Gellert did when he got into that final fight with Alberforth (and when he got kicked out of Drumstrang, who probably went "It's one thing to learn and practice dark arts, it's quite another to run away with our dark impulses!").

Voldemort's problem is that he's always afraid, he never felt secure, Voldie is never ever going to mellow out.

Grindelwald on the other hand, could and did, 'mellow out with age'. I think, if there was never a three-way duel that ended in death, they really could have been happy, and if they have given it a decade, I think, Grindelwald being Grindelwald, would still wan to crucio Alberforth during a fight or kill his annoying brother-in-law - but would have learned the impulse control necessary to remember the long term gain of Not Upsetting Albus versus the short term satisfaction of following his rage.

Here is a short page on the difference between psychopath and sociopath:
http://helpingpsychology.com/sociopath-vs-psychopath-whats-the-difference

...but I do have to disagree with the general assessment that "psychopaths are charming because they could mimic emotions", I don't think it's necessary fake, that they hurt the ones they love is an attribute of poor impulse control. Ergo, a psychopath can be perfectly sincere at the moment where they profess that they love you and never want to hurt you - but that sincerity of love doesn't mean they are not dangerous.

Typed in response to this:
http://guardians-song.livejournal.com/108716.html

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who compared "strange and dangerous" Ariana to Tom, but you and I have very different opinions on the two of them. I kinda like Albus, he's easier to like in spite of the many stupid things he's done when you remember the whole, pushed human being thing.

I don't think Albus had every made a sincere concrete effort to help Tom, from the moment he showed Tom magical might is right with the flaming wardrobe - when Tom was a 11 yr old kid who came to the orphanage with nothing, to that chilling moment when he told Harry to leave the baby because Nothing Can Be Done. Uh huh, just like nothing can be done about Harry having to live with the abusive Dursleys huh? God forbid you be wrong or try harder!

I find the way Albus, a full grown adult, treated Tom, the kid, as unforgivable and inexcusable - but it is understandable once you compare Tom to Ariana. Ariana went mad when all three of them, Ariana, Alberforth, and Albus, were kids, Ariana went mad and then the father was imprisoned. There are children who have survived terrible trauma and somehow retained sanity - Jaycee Dungard did. Considering how the senior Dumbledore went about revenge, and Albus's bout with Grindelwald, I think a certian amount of instability runs in the family, and Ariana's attack sets it off.

I think Albus was afraid of Ariana, the way Petunia was afraid of Harry. He was a good student but his sister was a dangerous freak, he does not say it to her face and he's probably ashame of thinking it, but he's afraid of her - madness is as unpredictable to Dumbledore as magic is to Petunia.

Both of Ariana and Tom's strange dangerousness stems from a very understandable thing - rage at previous helplessness. They feel like they could trust no one (though Ariana had the utter devotion of Alberforth) and that they will not be safe, they are angry at the world for letting them get hurt.

Ariana's father went to jail for her, what did her mother do?

Maybe that was what Ariana was thinking, even if she was not rational enough to be held responsible for it.

Maybe that's what Albus suspect of Ariana, they grew up together, and as Ray Bradbury noted in "The Veldt", children can be suspicious and feel irrationally, personally, persecuted. His sister took away his father, his mother, his future. The year Ariana died, she was 14 and Albus was 17? That would make Albus age 9 when his sister was attacked at age 4. His abandonment of Ariana that summer was the culmination of a decade of a child's fear and resentment. Then came the guilt, and still, fear. Tom Riddle was only an 11yr old little boy, but Albus Dumbledore was afraid of his darkness, and more suspicious of the harm that Tom could do, than concerned for Tom's welfare.

...and once again, instead of the leave baby Voldemort alone conclusion to the series, I wish that Harry and Ginny had adopted an orphaned child, and that our narrator Harry had better understanding of exactly how bad an environment Tom grew up in, and sought to prevent another Voldemort, wizard or muggle, by working for the welfare of vulnerable children, the ones in abusive homes like Harry, the ones in orphanage like Tom, the ones in the foster system. Then again, it could still happen, if JK Rowling can declare Dumbledore gay after the book is done, the same can be said of some of the listed children in the finale being adopted.

Plus, while the book is mostly in Harry's POV, and it is important for Dumbledore to tell him about how it's the choices people makes that determines light or dark, it'll be nice if there were more other POV on how the choices of other people affected Harry as well - if the Weasleys had not practically adopted Harry, would he have turned out like Tom Riddle, then Voldemort? I myself made conscious choices not to be a violent criminal - but my choices are influenced by what I was taught and what I learnt by example as a child - I looked out for some of my more vulnerable classmates because that's what I saw the teachers do for us, beyond duty.

http://gawker.com/5897485/white-supremacist-hacks-trayvon-martins-email-account-leaks-messages-online

http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/9504900.html

That question mark in the title is there, because as a channer (albeit I'm at /an/imal and nature and stay the hell away from /b/ now), I'm familiar with the style of trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls: half the time, beneath the utterance of racist-sexist-homophobic epithet, there is a girl and/or racial minority and/or queer, just watch the beginning of the chanology movement, before there were newfags, the masks does not conceal all the diversity there is in Anonymous.

What I'm saying is, while the hacking of a dead person's email account is in itself disrespectful, what is leaked overall paints Trayvon in a more positive like, and as one ONTD commenter has pointed out, it is heartbreaking now, how Trayvon's inbox was filled with emails from universities he was applying to.

Klanklannon? Sounds like a straw character, like Stephen Colbert, like Soren Bowie from Cracked.com. Something played to the extreme to demonstrate how ridiculous what is being played is.

Or maybe I'm overthinking it, Anonymous can be anyone, including racists. That Awkward Moment when you realise the person you've been friendly with was NOT being satirical at all...

Or maybe this Anon was Zee Agent of Chaos - the anon could have done more damage by deleting all of Trayvon's positive traces, the university emails, the pictures showing how YOUNG 17 is. The anon could have done actual good by turning over the passwords to Trayvon's family. The anon chose to put everything up and let chaos follow. Some who was given access are using it to troll, some other who was given access, Gawker's source, chose to delete the Gmail account so other people can't use it (ProTip: Change the password?).

Bwhahaha, I don't believe anything on Gmail could ever be deleted - on that note, I hope Gmail turn over the account to Trayvon's parents, it could mean a lot to them.

old news, November, but:

http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/9503518.html

It is always worrying when real life starts imitating satire:

Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly (2000) (TV)

David Chappelle: Somebody broke into my house once, this is a good time to call the police, but mm mm, nope. The house was too nice. It was a real nice house, but they'd never believe i lived in it. They'd be like 'He's still here!
[whacks the microphone on the stand]

David Chappelle: Oh my god. Open and shut case, Johnson. I saw this once when I was a rookie. Apparently this n*gger broke in and put up pictures of his family everywhere.'


...I just, this is just horrifying. I've always found zombies scarier than vampires because both look like people, but zombies just don't give a damn about your humanity at all. Sure, the vampires might eat you, but they will remember who you are? Zombies don't give a damn about who you are, your thoughts, your feelings, it just doesn't register. Being at the mercy of something you don't have a hope of convincing at all is horrifying.

police officers mocked his father’s past as a marine. "For them to look at my father that way, (with) no regard for his life, every morning I think about it," he says.

White guy caught my attention with very broken English: "Neee Halp?"

Then I was like, "What?"

White Guy: "Nee Halp?"

Me: "Need Help?"

White Guy: Neeeee Hal!"

Ohhhhh, it was very broken mandarin, or at this point, Orientalese, which is what happens when white people walk up to an Oriental-Looking-Person such as myself, and without any preamble, start to speak at us with what they think is our language. I think he was trying to say "You Good" in Mandarin?

Look, I get that you are trying to be friendly, but when you don't know which Asian language the complete stranger speaks, and when you live in a country where there are many Asian people who are BORN here (my cousins) who speaks English first, it's best to start with "Hello". I don't mind people trying out their Chinese with me if we are already talking and the topic comes up, but to just walk up to me and assume, it just rubs me the wrong way.

...and, even though I was out as George tonight, the fact that I wasn't the only one around but I was the only one he tried his Orientalese on, I have to wonder

1. Is he just being friendly or his he hitting on me?

2. Was he thinking of me as a cute guy or does he think of me as a girl who's just rocking a very tom boy look?


Either way, start with "Hello"! Or "How's the weather?"

8:29 AM on 03/28/2012

Now, it has emerged that at least one Sanford police officer may not have believed Zimmerman's story: the lead homicide investigator Chris Serino, who was reportedly overruled on making an arrest by the state attorney, Norman Wolfinger, or his office.
Indeed, there are several potential problems with Zimmerman's account.
1. Nowhere to hide
The path from 1111 Retreat View Circle, the clubhouse inside the gated Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex, where Zimmerman told police he first spotted a suspicious person, to the backyard walkway where Trayvon died, has no hiding places.

.....

Read the article at thegrio.com

( What was more ridiculous than the presence of C.N.I. (Cable News Investigations), was the absence of proper police work )

( The police treatment of Trayvon Martin, just taking George Zimmerman's word, reminds me of the tragic fate of another young victim, 14-yr-old Konerak Sinthasomphone. (Trigger Warning) )

When a child dies, it is unfair because the child had so few years. The death of a child is a constant, lasting lost - the killing of a child is a grievous robbery of the future, from all of us:

Martin dreamed of becoming a pilot. He had flown on school vacations to various places around the country with his mother, skiing in Colorado one year, going off to Texas another.

"There's no little black kids that want to be pilots," Horton joked with him when he was about 13.

"Well, I'll be the first one," the teen replied.

- Trayvon Martin's friends say he never picked a fight

1. Lining up in a mall
"What's going on here? What are they giving out?"
"I don't know, but everybody else was lining up!"
- If they ever want to exterminate the Chinese race, this would be how they could it, just hire a few of us to form a line and the rest will follow.
- Maybe I shouldn't have pointed it out, but hey, nobody is reading this except for me.
- ...and still on the fringe of LNY week, I'm almost okay with thinning out my fellow herdmate if it means that the battledome of the mall parking lot post LNY count down will have less cars in my car's way.

2. Grocery Check Out
i)watch the price screen like a hawk
ii)survey and do not feel shy about asking why someone is buying a bunch of something.

3. Going to a restaurant that NOBODY liked it because it was fairer than going to one where only one family liked:
- The 6 Worst Parts of Being Chinese by Christina H