My God I can't believe such dumbasses exist! Well... actually I can.

I wasn't working today so I watched the season premiere of The Tyra Banks Show. Tyra Banks or "Pretty Oprah" as I like to call her. All the insanity and lack of common sense but with a thousand times the sex appeal. Anyway her topic was which racial groups had it the worst. Her racial spectrum consisted of a Black woman , a Latina, an Asian woman, a Muslim woman and a Caucasian female. Well she was white. Caucasian includes all people of European descent including the "Latin" ones, Arabs, Persians and Eurasians although I might actually be missing some groups. So right away "dumb ass" but I forgive her because the term is so widely missused in the news.

She spent her whole show avoiding and down playing the non-racial reasons people judged someone of a different race to be something otherwise considered stereotypical. A Latina said that the black woman must have been "ghetto" when confronted she said she didn't make her description just because she was black it was because she thought she was dressed and coiffed and done up as you expect from a poor person. Tyra avoided this altogether and the black woman answered her parents both made over $70k a year (send that kind of racism my way) so she wasn't "ghetto trash".

They put the five women behind a glass divider and had a survey group answer questions based on the five women. They asked leading questions like "Which one of these women do you think is a terrorist?" Anyone who knows how to do a good survey knows that leading questions will spoil your data even the person asking the question can spoil it. A good looking woman asking a group of straight men about a new motorcycle put out by her company is likely to get false results in favor of the companies motorcycle just because straight men will more than likely lie to get in her good graces and would want to maintain the macho image associated with motorcycles in the first place whether they like them or not. During the episode one woman pointed out that the editing of the survey footage didn't accurately portray her comments. That got ignored as well.

That aside the worst thing about it was that it's a show about racism in North America and she didn't include aboriginal people in the mix. That's the ultimate "dumbassery" (yes that's my new word). You could tell that she was looking to make it seem that black people had it the worst. Nothing in the episode showed black people to have it worse than the other minorities. They only had the word of the deceptive survey taker who used leading questions. Most of the things said seemed to show black people were doing fairly well these days. Do I think that's the case? I don't know. Most black people I've met have been better off than me.

In all fairness I never watched the end of the show so maybe at the end she redeemed herself. I don't know. Actually if someone watched it and is reading this and knows how it ends let me know. I like Pretty Oprah and don't want to see genuine discussions on racism be tainted by things like this.

Get geeky with me!

I've spent way too many years enamored with all things related to the superhuman. In all that wasted time I've developed my own list of superhuman characters and a fictional world in which to write short stories that I use to help me process the things I've learn in life. In this posting I'm going to go explain how I explain the functioning of the "super elements" in my fictional world.


Why super beings in the first place?

The state of "super being" is an evolutionary tools providing a member of a species with attributes and abilities they cannot possess as they are. This permits evolution to determine if that species can evolve into a species with these particular attributes or abilities. I know pretty simple and doesn't explain in and of itself the range of super abilities and attributes possessed by superhumans in my stories on the service but then it's evolution and who knows what you need to adapt to?


Why are they super in the first place?

Super beings have what I simply call an "S-Factor" (yes the "S" stands for super as it does whenever I use the prefix "S-"). An ambiguous term that encompass the elements required to produce a super being's abilities and attributes. The s-factor exists across a series of sub-dimensions that exist collectively within a dimension known as the "S-Dimension" which overlaps with the other normal dimensions of the universe (27 dimensions the last time I heard). This dimension contains S-Force and S-Energy which provide the power for and are the mediums used by the S-factor to create "super effects". As example for a person to be able to exhale fire would need a bladder that contained the gases necessary for combustion; they would need muscles to compress the bladder to force the gas out and a method to ignite it as it leaves their mouth. With an s-factor the same ability is handled with extradimensional elements that alters their "apparent" properties so they can exhale fire by simply drawing in breadth and then exhaling while "willing" the effect to happen. I should note most super beings in my stories are born with their s-factors but may not have displayed any apparent superhuman attributes until some event like exposure to radiation caused an evolution.


The s-factor and evolution

Aside from physical evolution there is also a "reincarnation" component hence also a spiritual evolution thing. The s-factor picks up on elements from a super beings previous life and adapts them to their current life. The s-factor may do something like carry memories and knowledge into the super beings current life causing them to be child prodigies who for instance can speak with adult capacity as soon as their vocal mechanisms permit it or they may be able to say fix cars the first time they pop open a hood. If a person was an animal in previous life they may be able to intuitively understand and deal with the species of animal they were in a previous life.

This leads me to a class of superbeings I call "Chimeras" (after the mythical creature of Greek mythology). A superbeing who has attributes and/or abilities from one or more other species. You might get a super being who resembles a cockatrice for instance, part rooster and part rattlesnake. It could have been born to a snake and then it's rooster attributes show up as it grows up. You can also have plant animal hybrids, one of the super villains in my stories has a pet who is a snake/rose combination. I call these hybrids Plantimals. Manimals are a subclass of chimera who are a mix of human and a non-human animals.


S-Tek

Yeah, yeah it's a lame name which obviously means super technology. S-Tek is technology with an s-factor and are of course artificially created well actually early S-Tek was derived by using the remains of super beings. For example super armor and super weapons would have been created by using the hide and natural weapons from super animals. For example in Greek mythology Hercules used the skin of the Neamean Lion as armor. A more modern example might be a vehicle that had an s-factor applied to it that gives it motion enhancing properties making it overall quicker and more fuel efficient.


The Batman/Captain America factor

Something has always baffled me about "superheroes" with no apparent super powers being able to fight other super beings in direct combat. Captain America and Batman are renown for their ability to go toe to toe with super beings with superior attributes to theirs. My answer to this in my own little fictional world? All "S-Positive" (those with an s-factor) beings have the ability to manipulate s-force and s-energy at least intuitively. Hence if struck by a blow from a super strong super being the "non-powered" super being may instinctively redirect the bulk of the blow away from themselves. Hence in the case of someone like Batman or Captain America who had intensive combat training have been conditioned to intuitively use s-force/s-energy to enhance their combat skill permitting them to stand to to toe with other super beings with super powers and attributes.


That's it about that for now. I hope you've enjoyed a glimpse of my geekier size. This little fictional world of mine is a good way to let me work through things and deal with some of the bigger picture stuff.

I've discovered my new life philosophy.

In retrospect I feel stupid for not having thought about it before. I'm a wandering philosopher so it should have occurred to me. I spent a lot of wasted time looking for Miss Right when I should have only been concerned about Miss Rightnow. It makes sense. I don't stay in any one place too long so why be in any one relationship for a long time. If only I would have thought about it before. Damn me and my idealistic ways!

So to sum it up my new life philosophy is "I'm not looking for Misses Right. I'm looking for Misses Rightnow." Well something like that. I'm sure my "evil genie" will find someway to make me regret this frame of mind. That and we'll see if I can overcome my idealistic tendencies.

It's funny but not haha funny.

I was raised a French Catholic. I didn't fit in. As I grew older it had been rumored I was also part aboriginal (BlackFeet). As I grew older I learned that I was part French, part English, part Scottish, part Irish, part German, part Danish (this is my "purest" lineage) and part Ojibway. The list is probably even bigger than that but those are the ones I know of for certain. I don't fit in with any of them either but I am most recognized as either French, undiscript native person or Italian (as far a I know I'm not part Italian).

Why do I say this? Because when I'm made aware of racism or racist actions I'm often indifferent unless of course it's systematic racism or blatanly harmful. Not because I think these things are good but because I'm such a mix I can't get behind an "us" against them mentality. I have no "us" to belong to and odds are I'm part "them" anyway so I can ultimately only be angry at the individuals not the groups they belong to.

Why do I write this? As a Metis I'm considered an aboriginal person and on occasion it is "suggested" to me that I should be appaled at the treatment of my people. I think to myself, "How can I do that? I don't know who my people are." Just because I fit within a broad definition of "aboriginal" it doesn't make every aboriginal person my people. I'm part Ojibway not Iroquois, not Mic Mac, not Black Feet, not Cree or the rest.

So I have decided to just be myself and my unique mix of these groups but I will say that occasionnaly it would be nice to belong to something but I don't so I live as the outsider making my connections based on who I am and not what group I belong to...well in my little world anyway^_^

Hermaphrodites are people too!

So I lied I'm doing this particular subject. WOW is it ever a huge and complicated subject if you let it be. I thought about it because in my days as a database designer I was never allowed to include hermaphrodite or "intersexed" as an option under "Sex". I thought it was weird because some places were involved in therapy and were supposed to be "sensitive" but even then it wasn't allowed. I thought this was odd. Hermaphrodites exist. A whole spectrum of in between variations exist so I always thought why not at least include an option for it.

So I was doing some research into hermaphrodites and learned about all kinds of interesting things about the definition of what medically defines sexes. First it was about external characteristics, then gonads and finally it was about the X and Y chromosomes. I'm not surprised by how hard it is to define things with "scientific" precision. What separates one thing from another can be so minuscule as to be undetectable but it has consequences on a larger scale. Sodium and chlorine are lethal to humans but when put together they create sodium chloride (table salt) which is essential to our nervous system.

Anyway before I digress too far hermaphrodites are human beings. No system in nature is perfect. Gender and sexuality functions on a spectrum. Most people basically fall into male and female heterosexuals (fall within a tolerance for what constitutes a heterosexual male or female for all you know that hot babe your trying to land is only superficially the gender you think they are but internally they are something else) but that's not all of the spectrum. It consists of all kind of in between gendering and sexuality. For reproduction all you need is a sperm and egg and a place to incubate. So as long as you're fertile you're in the game. Apparently while it is uncommon about less than 1% of hermaphrodites are actually fertile meaning those capable of reproduction are REALLY capable of reproduction. So since hermaphrodites and other "intersexed" individuals don't conform to the notion of two sexes with nothing in between it doesn't mean they aren't humans. Sexuality is just a spectrum with two complete distinct genders on each end. The reason for this as far as I can tell is simply because we start off androgynous with all the same parts that are then altered to fit what part of the reproductive strategy we are going to take.

I'm not sure what more to say without writing a book on the subject. I haven't touched on how not all cultures even modern ones view hermaphrodites as odd. I haven't touched on the medical alterations done to people to make them conform to a two gender idea or even the psychological damaged done to people by making them feel like freaks. Hell I haven't touched on the "blasphemy" of saying humans aren't perfect creations or even the politically correct blasphemy of implying that someone may be an "imperfect" creation.

I don't think I've managed to really capture the idea of the title of this posting so I guess I hope you come away from this with the idea that we group things by what we believe are their defining common characteristics. Hermaphrodites share all the traits of the rest of their respective species (actually some specicies of non-human animals are specifically hermaphrodite in which case only being able to perform one part of reproduction would be seen as abnormal) so the human ones are human and that's a fact. Hell for all you know you might be like Eric Cartman and your mom is actually your dad.

Things I'm never going to blog about

A list of blogs I'm never going to post.

1. Why I like women's breasts.
2. Stupid arguments about gay marriage.

Note: I'm not against gay marriage but I've heard some stupid arguments for and against it.

3. Free will for dummies.
4. Why the world is full of assholes and why it makes sense.
5. The evil things that "good" people do.
6. Does it really matter that Survivor is dividing the tribes by "race" this season?
7. Why people who mean well need the occasional beating.
8. If a 14 year old can be tried as an adult then a 16 year old can have sex with whomever they want.
9. Hermaphrodites are people too!
10. Are people who want to be a gender other then the one they are just being sexist?

Thanks for reading ^_^

I wonder if this means anything?

I've been busy lately with work and feeling pretty toxic. Sunday I was pretty sick and only finally got up at three in the afternoon. That night I dreamed that I had gathered a large group of "magical" people. As a consequence the gathering place (a cottage) became charged with with all kinds of mystical energy. As a consequence the place was developing "wormhole" like portals allowing quick access to different areas. I amused myself for a moment by diving through portals appearing here and there at my whim.

I was having a good time and so I took a number of the magical people with me into the lake so they could use their water manipulating powers for a spectacular display. When I gave the signal to pool their abilities together to create a waterspout I found myself yanked backwards by an invisible force going skipping along the surface. I turned to see myself rushing headlong towards a killer whale which I manage to avoid only to find myself drawn toward a huge whale like body (many times bigger than the killer whales) lifting itself partially out of the water to draw me beneath it and drown me. I knew intuitively this was what was producing the invisible force that was drawing me towards it. I forced myself to wake up rather than face a drowning death at the flippers of a giant water demon. Apparently gathering magical people together also has a consequence of attracting magical predators. That was the thought that followed me to waking consciousness anyway.

Because I am sick and need the sleep I ignore the lingering nightmare feeling and go to sleep again. This time something completely out of character happens. I have another dream (well series of dreams possibly, I kept waking up and going back to sleep) It starts off typical for my warped mind. There's an apocalyptic event that is occurring at Christmas time. I get a vibe this is something that is occurring due to the negative emotions being build up by people's unfair hatred and apathy for each other. I decided I want to try and clear the psychic ether and possibly avoid this end of days scenario.

I decided that I am going to start engaging in random acts of kindness. In this dream one of my cousins is a doctor. I encounter her as I begin my spree and she decides she wants to join along. She decides she's going to perform medical procedures for free over the Christmas holidays. Well her plan attracts attention. She credits me with inspiring her when someone asks her why she's doing it. This person just so happens to be wealthy and very well connected. He arranges a radio interview for me to speak about what I was planning to do. From there (and while I go in and out of sleep) my plan to perform random acts of kindness inspires others and soon it grows far beyond my ability to keep track of. Banks were forgiving loans, pilots were putting symbols and messages of peace on their fighter jets spreading the word of this growing peace movement. Neighbors were helping neighbors on that cold and unforgiving Christmas week. To make a long story short it seemed like my decision/conviction to engage in random acts of kindness was the excuse the Universe was waiting for to cleanse the planet of the negative emotional build-up.

So anyway. I'm still under the weather so this isn't the best written blog I've ever done. Why I ask what this could mean is because my brain is pretty twisted and functions on dark and twisted scenarios as with the first dream. To dream of love and kindness is basically unheard of for me. I wonder if it signifies a change in my psyche?

Thanks for reading^_^