today...

is my wedding anniversary.
my husband just had his first child with his fiancee.

yep.

I need to settle down soon.

Moving Agains

Getting all packed up to move again,
I'm nervous about the move and getting a good job in my new town.

hope

hope against hope.

litany against fear

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain

why I should write more

I should write more to remember,
I should write more to forget.
I should write more to capture, enthrall and make real.
I should write more to act.
I should write more to feel.

write more to succeed.
write more to fail.

your name slipped off my tongue.

Special Message:

LET GO!

I feel like I'm censoring myself because I'm worried about what other people will think.

Been a while and changed a lot

Seriously thinking about just starting a new blog if I plan on continuing to write.
Changes... loads.

Make your own dynamic tag cloud

Stressed

Stressed right out, and because I wear it so well no one really realizes that they're making it fucking worse.

4 Exams, first one tomorrow.
Moving, at the end of the month but need to have the place ready to go before then.
Work, work work work.

Fretting about the future.
Josh keeps telling me not to worry, but this is how I am.
I need to plan every detail and know every date.... I guess I have to suck it up and realize I can't control SHIT.

FINAL BOSS OF THE INTERNET

I know this guy,
so that makes this even more amusing to me.

Can't believe it!

I finished classes on Thursday the 5th.
Just 4 exams to go, fortunately well spaced over the next 2 weeks, and I'm finished my diploma.

The Easter long weekend has been good. Friday off was blissful.
Saw my old friends from Summerland, Holly, Robin and Shalyn.

Hung out with Sarah and her fella Patrick too.
More Shalyn time tomorrow which is much valued.

Jiu-Jitsu has been fabulous, I really missed being able to go 3 nights a week the last little while... too many papers due right at the end of term to have much of a life.

In other news, I'm moving at the end of the month. So lots of packing and cleaning going on.
Luckily I am only working weekends until May anyways so that gives me a fair bit of time even with the exams.

It's odd though, finishing my diploma is a little bit intimidating because I keep thinking I need to have everything planned to perfection. Josh is trying his best to persuade me that what really matters working hard and enjoying life.

I'm not convinced. LOL.

But I've always been a planning and listing kind of girl.
Maybe I can relax for a little while though.

<3

Me.

Jung - Meyers-Brigg Type

Did a personality test again and once more it came out ENFJ... at least I'm consistent.
Extroverted 22%
Intuitive 50%
Feeling 62%
Judging 22%

Skeptic

Call me a monster, but I'm incredibly skeptical of this whole Invisible Children Inc. KONY 2012 movement. It's blowing up on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, it's all over my RSS.... I avoided reading or viewing anything until today as I was already abundantly aware of Joseph Kony and the LRA.

Let me first make this absolutely clear, I am not saying that Kony and the LRA shouldn't be stopped, I am not saying that justice should not be served, I am not saying that everyone who is standing up and using their voice is wrong.

What I am saying is that, if we are to act we must first be informed.


I guess really what it comes down to is that I'm skeptical of a charity that isn't registered as a charity, has no external financial audits and supports direct military intervention. Especially when they're supporting the 'lesser of two evils' as it were, by supporting the Ugandan government and the military who also have accusations of abuse of power and rape stacked upon them. The Ugandan government also recently tabled another 'Anti-Homosexuality' Bill, Raided a LGBT-rights workshop in February and continues to subordinate women with massive gender inequality and poverty. Sounds like a damned fine group to throw in with don't ya think?

Sure Kony is one bad dude, and I'm not saying I don't want to see him brought to justice for his war crimes, I just don't think that external military assistance, money filling some random organization's coffers, and social media hysteria is what is going to achieve.  

I'm getting a lot of scuff for this view point, and so I will share my sources.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kony

http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/kony-2012-invisible-children-awareness-campaign-read-this-before-sharing-their-video.html

http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/uganda

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12429

http://slyoyster.com/newsandpolitics/2012/invisible-children/

"So, before you get swept up in Kony 2012 fever because some celebrity posted a video to Facebook or tweeted about it, just keep in mind that, yes, Joseph Kony is an evil man. However, giving your money and support to a poorly run and misguided charity isn’t a solution either."

http://thedailywh.at/tag/invisible-children/

"By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive go toward actually helping anyone [pdf]. The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known."

"And as far as what they do with that money:

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.

Let’s not get our lines crossed: The Lord’s Resistance Army is bad news. And Joseph Kony is a very bad man, and needs to be stopped. But propping up Uganda’s decades-old dictatorship and its military arm, which has been accused by the UN of committing unspeakable atrocities and itself facilitated the recruitment of child soldiers, is not the way to go about it."

If you'd like to help -- I tracked down some info:

captainjhwatson:
Since Uganda is getting a lot of interest on the internet right now, I figured it was important to try to present an alternative source of information. Invisible Children is, as many already know, a highly problematic organization, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to help. Here are some other sources of information, statistics, and ways to donate/help.

• American Progress’s 2007 report, “What to Do About Joseph Kony”
• Amnesty International’s 2011 report on Uganda
• Global Security’s page on the Lord’s Resistance Army
• Washington Post, “A Child’s Hell in the Lord’s Resistance Army,” May 2006.
• HRW: “Protect civilians from LRA abuses,” May 2011
• AllAfrica.com, “Amnesty International wants Kony arrested,” May 2010
• AI’s Uganda Portal
• Human Rights Watch’s Uganda portal
• Democracy Now!’s Uganda portal

Thanks to http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/ for re-posting this information.


Another link and a quote which may be more relevant to those of my generation and older than to anyone younger... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-deibert/invisible-children_b_1327417.html

"By blindly supporting Uganda's current government and its military adventures beyond its borders, as Invisible Children suggests that people do, Invisible Children is in fact guaranteeing that there will be more violence, not less, in Central Africa.
I have seen the well-meaning foreigners do plenty of damage before, so that is why people understanding the context and the history of the region is important before they blunder blindly forward to "help" a people they don't understand.
U.S. President Bill Clinton professed that he was "helping" in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s and his help ended up with over 6 million people losing their lives.
The same mistake should not be repeated today."

Viral videos, buying bracelets, and posting on Facebook, do not an activist make.
If you really want to make change I encourage you to do so, in your own way, and with legitimate organizations and charities.











Alright, you can resume the name calling and hating now.




EDIT: one more link here from a friend who posted on this issue in 2006... YEP 6 years ago!
http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/

Take two and call me in the morning.

Feeling a bit better than I was when I last wrote.
Trying to eat healthier, I'm really crap at this.
And have decided to give Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu a shot...
We'll see!

Fast Fading Futures

Came home with a fever and swollen lymph nodes.
Been feeling rather melancholy this evening.

Made the mistake of flipping backwards through my life, not sure why I think things will be any better in this future I seem convinced I have.

Maybe this is just a depressive babble... but who knows.