Things that have happened lately – A List

• Albert moved to Johannesburg (which – yay! –means I’ll probably never see him again)
• My father had a heart attack (which sucked, obviously)
• I did not vote in the national elections.
• My feet turned into this
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• I broke down in tears because there was no milk for my coffee (and now I’m sorry for everyone whose PMS I ever laughed at, because this? Is so much worse.
• I got made up to look like an Indian (possibly an Indian. Not really sure what it’s meant to be. I think I looked pretty, though.)

 

• I talked Marcel into letting my cousin make-up him. She didn’t turn him into a pirate, which I think is unfair.

 

• My dad got into a fight with a blesbok (which is a kind of antelope with really sharp horns and a nasty temper). It nearly disembowelled him, and he tore his shoulder to hell. This was after the heart attack, mind you. It was Monday, in fact.
• I found out I’m having a boy, contrary to expectations.
• I started writing again
• I installed Windows 7, which not only takes the Cake of Awesome, but eats some of it and smooshes the rest into your face so you look like a clownhead.
• I installed Windows Live Writer. Can you see I’m having fun with it?

10 Things no-one tells you about Pregnancy (and if they do, you don’t listen)

 

1. Your ass will expand to gargantuan proportions
2. You will walk like Godzilla – and nobody ever bothers to mention that this walk is not due to just being TOO FAT TO MOVE PROPERLY, but because of actual PAIN!
3. You will cry for no apparent reason.
4. You will want to scream at people (and if you think you can get away with it, you will.)
5. Your brain will shrink to the size of an acorn.
6. So will your bladder.
7. Everything else, up to and including your feet, will grow. And grow, and grow, and grow…
8. You will cry the first time you feel the baby kick.
9. You will hate the father of your baby every time you struggle out of bed in the middle of the night for yet another pee break (in my case, I hate him already, so I should probably say hate him more.)
10. It is the single most worthwhile biological function you will EVER PERFORM. (and men can’t do it, neener neener neener)

 

Technically, people do sort of imply nr.10, but they rarely actually come out and say it. And I think that it’s important that people take note of the fact that pregnancy is the most important thing a human being can ever do. And men can’t. Hahahahahahahahaha! 

Justice and Mercy

There’s a debate going on at the moment, regarding prisoner’s rights in South Africa. A lot of you may not know that a very large percentage of our prison population is HIV positive, mainly because they picked up the ’slow puncture’ in prison.
Large numbers of prisoners are dying in prison, and many have now made the case that these prisoners should be allowed to go home and die with their families.
Which is all well and good, and a clear case of tempering Justice with Mercy, as is right and proper.

But is it really? We are so very concerned about Mercy, that it seems to me that Justice has fallen by the wayside.
Where was Mercy when these men raped children? Where was Mercy when they brutally murdered people in their homes, or shot them in cold blood because they were ‘inconvenient’?
The answer? Mercy was nowhere to be found.

My Wise Sister-in-Law said (wisely, of course) that you can’t pay with more than your life. Which is very true. Many of these men would not be dying now if they hadn’t gone to jail, so in a sense they are paying with their lives.
But here’s the thing: 99% of them do not care. It’s a well known fact that if you go to jail, unless you’re very fast or you have some serious connections, you will be raped. Repeatedly and violently. And there’s a very good chance you will get AIDS from it.
Everyone knows this. But they still do it. They still think they can do whatever they please, to whomever they like, and there will be no consequences.
I’m not saying that male rape in prison is a good thing, don’t get me wrong.
It’s a horrible thing, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
But it is a consequence.
And when the government is so concerned with tempering Justice with Mercy that Justice has gone out the window, we need those consequences.

Think about this: in Saudi Arabia, consequences for crime are clear, immediate and more often than not severe. Allright, some of the things they consider crimes are not in the Western mind, crimes at all, but the point is that there are consequences. If you murder, you die. It’s a simple equation, and it works.
Because they are less concerned with the rights of the criminals than the rights of the citizens.
In the West, it’s often the other way ’round.

If our Mercy was more tempered with Justice, the world might be a different place.

So I’m officially 22

Can’t say it feels much different from being 21… My birthday was on the fourth. So far my twenty-second year is not going well. Still can’t write, have barely enough money to breathe etc. etc.

 

In other news, am having much fun at work, and am still alive. It’s my sister’s birthday today, and she is going to kill me because I haven’t gotten her a present yet.

Still Unemployed

But I might have a job by the 15th. Better have a job by the 15th…

Unemployment sucks

Seriously.

No Internet 9Oh, internet, why hast thou forsaken me?) and nothing to do.

Am currently planning to take job offer for below-minimum wage, as Merlin is desperately in need of food.

So am I, come to think of it…

I think I might be about to get fired.

I made a huge mistake, and I think I’m about to lose my job.

Wold you do this?

Would you work eight extra hours while you’re sick, on fifteen minutes’ notice?
Because apparently I should have.

In any case.

I have finished The Naked God, and it’s like a genie popped out of nowhere to grant me all my wishes. I really loved that book.

In other news, Albert was an Asshole Royal last night – dragging me out to his friends’ place until ten when he knows I have to be at work at six, and then fucking off to some other friends untill bloody midnihgt. He also said they phoned him to go, but I was tired, not deaf. They never phoned him. So either he went there out of his own will, or he never went there at all. And thus was out doing godknowswhat with godknowswho. He also smoked all my cigarettes.

To sum up: I hate my job, I love the book, and Albert is a pain.

Seriously. Everyone in the world must read this.

Speaking as someone who has my novel open in the background while I surf the web and try to catch up on all the blogs I want to read, go read this.
You’re missing our if you don’t.

Moral Question

As we all know, I have the well-rounded moral sense of an alley cat.
Which is why I am appealing to you, the Internet, to help me out here.

My Moral Question

Is it moral/ethical to be for something in general, but not in your specific case? Like, a big cause or whatever. If you champion a cause without actually wanting to apply it to you, does that make you a bad person?
note: not talking about laws and/or religions, obviously, because as far as I know if you believe in the laws of a religion, you’re supposed to believe that they apply to you first. Obviously if you’re diddling your daughter and campaigning against child abuse that does make you a bad person.

I mean, in the sense of, say, interracial or gay marriage. I’m all for people being able to marry whoever they want to, no matter what shape, size or colour they are.
But me, personally?
I generally prefer my partners to be white and male.

Does the face that I support interracial relationships and gay marriage despite never intending to practice either make me a hypocrite?

Anyway, I was just wondering that