...a job, probably. Wasting weekends away behind the pc is rather unproductive, and jobs bring in money, with which one can do... fun stuff. Like buy things. Christmas and birthday gifts for friends. Books. Locker-candy. Useless things.
The problem with actually getting a job is: a) finding one: Saan's got the speed and willingness to move of your average garden snail. Something close to home. So far, there's a job at a butcher, but Saan's mom has some doubts concerning Saan and sharp objects at nine AM on a Sunday morning. b) the law: Saan knows vaguely that she can't work more than X days three thirds of the year and as much as she wants in period Y but can't make more than Z in euros, over the space of W months, weeks or one year. c) school: Saan has to have enough time left to do her schoolwork and study for her tests. d) sleep: the later Saan goes to bed, the worse her time asleep and general mood gets. So no night work on Fridays at the uncle's bakery. e) a place to put the money: Saan has no bank account from which she can withdraw money with a credit card. Few people pay out sixteen year olds in cash.
So, so far babysitting has been scratched off the list due to Saan's general impatience with kids, butcher's been vetoed and the bakery has, apart from being fifteen miles away and keeping her up from, say, eight to seven, the downside of being yelled at during that entire time. So she'll probably spend a few days trying to find some info on the subject.
Saan wanted to practice her alternate butterfly, because she had one part of the move down, and mess around a little with her poi in general, but it's been raining funnily all day. The kind of rain that doesn't bother you until you notice your jeans are soaked. So there's not much to do outside today, except go out with friends (There's always a movie... Chances of convincing her friends that the quarter past ten show is a good idea are tiny, though) or stay home and find ways to amuse yourself. Like filling out your blog, watching movies, bugging your family through msn, jigsaws, books, tv, doing very you-things... And sadly enough Saan just feels like going out and, if possible, spin something. Feeling a bit jittery. Wandering around town in the middle of the night sounds like fun, too. So, maybe, just maybe, she'll grab the phone and ask a few people if they feel jittery, too.
Your opinion is target practice for the world around you.
The Declaration of Rights proclaims proudly, somwhere around article 11: "The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law." Then there is the idea that schools which you can finish with a diploma that allows access to a university will not abide illegal actions.
Sadly enough, both of the aforementioned concepts are perfectionistic at best. Most of us come across it every day; you open your mouth, someone else with a bigger mouth doesn't like it and you never hear the end of it from everyone else. The first person's freedom of speech is used against theirselves. Sound familiar, anyone?
Peer pressure pushes people to make nice, even, pretty much identical statistics when polls are taken un-anonymously. Differences in opinion get trated with hostility.
Real-life example: Saan is the only one in class who thinks that in a serious relationship, one or both members may be sexually active with another partner. All of her classmates are against it, but Saan says she doesn't mind and nearly gets lynched in the process. Things like vaginism, differences in sexual drive, handicaps (mental of physical), phobias, bodily differences that nature sometimes brings along (say asexuality and hermaphrodites), complexes, traumas, mutilation with extensive scarring or the inability to... perform as a result, ... don't seem to exist. The idea of Saan's classmates: 'Monogamy is a must, and if you can't have (enough) sex and you're in a relationship, celibacy is the only solution'. Sex and love are not the same and do not always go hand in hand, or so everyone screams all around us. So, in Saan's weird, twisted mind, being sexually active does not match with being in love or making love to someone. Sex is a basic need that needs to be fufilled at some point. The aforementioned proposition never mentions love with the (second) sexual partner, or sex with the first. Saan'd rather her boyfriend goes and pays a visit to a prostitute than he be miserable and, quite selfishly, she'd rather pay for something like that than outright lie to someone she cares about that she doesn't miss anything.
Lying about having another sexual partner is something else entirely. That's cowardice, betrayal, risking things you shouldn't, not caring and being an all-in-all lousy partner in a relationship. Don't even get Saan started on protection and STDs. If you're doing something sexual and your partner doesn't know, fine, it's wrong. If your partner knows, knows why, realises you try to do it so it wouldn't damage your relationship and at least tries to bring on some understanding for you (which in Saan's opinion, a good partner should), why should it be wrong? You're human, you've got needs, handle 'em, talk about 'em, get the fuck over it.
But apparently, not having needs met or letting frustrations build cannot damage a relationship. Sex without ties is sinful and wrong, even if it can stop the feeling that you are a mutant and a criminal for wanting something your most precious person can't give you. Finding somewhat unconventional means to solve problems is bad and unethical. You can use the limbs of corpses, which belonged to someone who had people who loved them, you can use products tested on animals, which died and suffered because of it, you can use for medical purposes cells from embryos that could have grown into a child and a person, perhaps someone who'd have found the cure for a much worse disease than some rich man who suffered several heart attacks due to wrong eating habits and too little excercise, but you cannot have sex with someone you do not give a damn about to make sure it won't make you forget how much you do care about your boy-/girlfriend.
Peculiar values we have in our world these days.
On a much happier note: Saan's battled down her first heaps of homework and (look!) made a longer post than the pas week or so! Also, the Halloween-chibi's (almost, just needs some color--Yif? Please-ly?--and silver roller pen) finished! That, and there's the very small chance that Saan's UNK!Prehistoric cell phone will (finally, after nearly seven years of faithful duty and three generations of Saan's family) be replaced with a slightly more recent model that will hopefully fit in her pocket without bruising half her hip and weighing a pound and half (not overreacting much, here). She's also received a cut version of one of last Saturday's photographs which due to absolute Saan-with-friends-ness shan't be posted here.
Saan's getting tired of making short posts, so to fill your time, please enoy this movie while she tries to stay interested in a dead guy's pathethic love life.
Okay, after yesterday's mass data move, Saan's back. The reason why she was still shifting files around late in the evening was that she'd been to the annual fall event at her old/her sis' school. She'd taken her poi to make the wait for her friends shorter (there is a movie of Saan using them. And of Elly getting them tangled. Somewhere. Heck, there's probably two. Go ask one of the Art teachers in her old school for the disk.) and managed to not-smack the grownups in the face, so no one told her to stop it. She'd even won something, but donated it to the younger sister of someone she knew. Colored sand might be pretty, but it's also pretty useless. The milkshakes were nice, though. Then there was the bright idea to allow herself to get painted. Later, she and her friends shocked people in ''T Wit Huis' by showing up with hearts and flowers all over their faces, though the people deep-frying everything thought it was pretty amusing. Forgetting about having their faces painted caused Elly to wonder why the heck her fingers had turned purple (and why her food tasted so make-up-y, too). Later experimenting proved that the paint came off better with Saan's bottle of Lipikar than with ordinary water and soap. By the time they'd stumbled back to Saan's house (momentary holdup at the half past ten ice cream van while wondering if french fries, lemonade and milkshakes went well with ice cream and cherries) Elly remembered she had to be at a bus stop about a mile off. So Saan's mom gave a lift, since Elly was tired. Yif declined politely for one for her because she had a bike parked at Saan's.
Saan has a tiny harddisk of 27 GB. So she hasn't much room for things like movies. Her brother however, has an external harddisk of 300 GB. And he's not home. So Saan's hogging about 5 GB from his disk for a few days. Sad part is: transferring files takes long and makes the pc go slow. So Saan's typing real slow to make sure she doesn't get typos in this thing, since the letters are lagging. Check back tomorrow.
Saan's doing a little happy dance behind her pc at the moment due to no homework except for the Potato Project for the first three days of the week, the upcoming fall festival and a whole Wednesday of No School! So there's time for: -friends (verrry important) -poi (enthusiasm will probably have dampened some after an hour of still not getting the alternate butterfly right) -sleeping late with no three am wakeup call from the hair dryer (*locks herself up in room*) -writing stuff that's not for the blog (So far that one sucks and it won't get any better due to monthly transfer limit approaching and a Favor Owed) -considering going back to her embroidery for a few minutes (She's stuck. Poor her.) -the Potato Project (MS Word Table wrestling, advanced level) -Figuring out what to do about the T-shirt (XXXL. It makes for comfy jammies, though)
Maths was boring today, Saan had a scrap of paper lying about, this is what came out. There is a Special Edition Paint Shop Pro Version, which I won't be posting due to absolute horridness and hippie patterns. This didn't take long to scan because Saan's brother scanned it in for her and his pc does not eat scans for breakfast.
Cookies are strange things. They're bad for you, but everyone eats them. There's dozens of kinds of 'em, and they're all different. And some of them (or those in Saan's house) have super powers (Special thanks to Philou for this idea), such as: teleportation, invisibility, mind-control and auto-multiplication when eaten or liked. Allow Saan to elaborate on this theory.
Teleportation: They were in the cookie-cupboard a minute ago. Now they're on Saan's brother's desk/in her father's car/mother's schoolbag/sister's mouth and no one knows how they got there. Disappearance at point A, reappearance at point B. Can occur with entire boxes, snack packs or single cookies.
Invisibility: Last night, there were two full boxes left. Now, both boxes are gone, and there's just this wee little package left, hidden in a faraway corner. No one knows where they're now. Disappearance at point A, no reappearance whatsoever. Or Saan's got a problem with invisible mutant rats that eat cardboard, plastic wrappers and large amounts of chemical conservants, colorants and flavors without leaving crumbs and show no interest in things like bags of flour or sugar. Sometimes the box does reappear, in the wastebasket, neatly folded, with the top and bottom torn open. If it's mutant rats, they're neat freaks.
Mind-control: When looking for a snack, Saan tells herself she'll eat one Oreo and leave the rest for after her schoolwork. Three snack-packs later, she's still munching away while a tiny voice in the back of her mind keeps suggesting she take 'one more'.
Auto-Multiplication: When Eaten: This happens mostly with adults. They eat one 50 gr cookie a day, and still manage to gain more weight than the actual cookies together by the end of the month. Keeping in mind that according to the laws of chemistry you cannot gain or lose mass during a reaction, auto-multiplication is the only explanation. When Liked: This happens to kids. They find a new kind of cookie, usually one that was eaten at a friend's house, eat it and go 'Hey, this isn't that bad' within earshot of an adult. Three days later, there's five family packs of the new treat sitting with the groceries, and both mother and father insist they did not buy them when their significant other asks.
That being said, Saan's gonna eat one more Prince Mini Star (black and white variety) and go wash her hair.
PMS brings on strange cravings for some women, most of them not so good for the accompanying cramps. Saan could just sum it up with one word for her: Easter. You see, Easter, just like the premenstrual syndrome, is purely: -Chocolate, sugar-shelled eggs with creamy fillings and greasy, sandwich-like, sugary breads, blessed or not. -Döner kebab. Not quite sure how that'll fit in there, but it probably does, somehow. -The urge to huddle under the covers and not come out of bed for the day. -The weather either too hot, too cold or too wet. -The phone ringing more than it seems to do when it's not your turn to pick up. -Getting your clothes stained with deodorant somehow. -The absolute, resounding 'no' to all kinds of physical excercise. -The demand for flannel sheets with mice on it. Big enough for a bed with room for two. -Five-minute-lasting good intentions. -Not finding your mom until you've solved it yourself. -The urge to stay home and NOT see your family. And last but not least: -An excuse for your behavior.
(Tuesday=cleanup day. Saan's collecting her mess from all over the house tonight, so the post's short.)
The blog's passed the five hundred visitor mark today and no one got horribly mutilated during Chemistry. Saan's making use of the occasion to thank everyone checking back here regularly and clean up her pc's hard disk. It's getting a wee bit full. Part of her folders are getting placed onto The Stick (tm) and most of her photos are going to the home network server, which has all the room Saan needs in its 300 GB of space. And her brother's messing with the electricity again, so the post's short in case we have troubles again. See ya.
Tomorrow saan has her first practical chermistry lesson of the year. In preparation, she got to look up the R- and S-factors of all used substances got looked up. This is meant to be a safety precaution, but Saan suspects it's meant to scare students into not trying anything funny. The first substance alone had the need for gloves, lab coat and safety goggles. The down part to the last is that Saan can't use them safely; she can't see further than two feet without her own glasses. If you put on safety goggles, they slide off and generally don't protect much. Ergo, no goggles for anyone wearing glasses already. The second substance goes so far as to have the safety suggestion that a facial protection mask can also be a smart idea. Both substances require medical advice if contact with the eyes is established. One also tells you to go to the doc if you have an accident with it or start feeling unwell. Eek, much. Risk factors: irritation to the eyes, skin and breathing system. Causes burns. Danger for a serious eye injury.
So, if there's no post tomorrow, an accident happened or Saan's lab partner poisoned her.
Saan was going to write something today, but she hasn't any inspiration. Brain storming gets results like 'World Peace', 'Love', 'Rain Worms', 'Sweet Little Rabbits with Flies On Their Noses' (And only Dutch-speaking BeNeLux inhabitants who regularly listen to the radio will get that one). So there's no post today. Not about fluffy rabbits, or newspaper misprints, or commong motives for murder. Not even about the wicked vanilla pudding her mom made two nights back, or how she managed a freaky move that looks a bit like One On Each Side today, with her poi, though it was lots of fun to look at. She could talk about her new socks, which are blue, fluffy, soft and excellent for sliding across hardwood floors (she did the test on her bedroom floor and catapulted herself into the bed), but that about sums it up. Or, perhaps, she could count all the pieces of her sister's puzzle on the table, but the box says it are five hundred. It'd be a waste of good typing. Maybe she could beat the Christmas rush and translate the star-song to English, but she can't sing, and it'd end up sounding freaky. She wants to ask if someone knows the recipe for the awesome dessert she just had, but she doesn't know the name, and the waiter wouldn't tell. Or if anyone reading this has any culinary talents. Any suggestions are welcome; it contained lots of chocolate, and biscuit. She could talk about how the fish that kept rising from the dead has finally died and has been flushed through the toilet and how the local humane society will be called in if the drain's clogged with rotting guppy corpses. And then there's the Invisible Bruise on her hip that no one sees, but she does feel every time she gets up, or the headache that mysteriously disappeared after she turned on some music. Oh, and apparently there are total strangers reading this that like what she's writing, which is probably why she kept on typing after the first sentence. Those that hate it can take a very long walk on a short pier and drown. See if Saan gives a damn. Then there's the possibility of a monologue on what's on tv tonight, but without cable, you only have two real options. Saan has had all the French she can handle for one day. She's also wondering on how she's gonna start on her poetic interpretation of Catullus' Carmen something of the Lesbia Lotsofpoems. Reading it over and over makes Saan convinced that a dog later will be less of a pest than a husband. She could put a picture here, but she'd have to spend half an hour fiddling with the scanner and image. She could get started on her St. Nicholas/Christmas/New Years/Birthday-wish list. So far, there's a set of leather finger-straps with ball-chains on it. And some fluffy poi heads to hang onto it, in pink, orange, rainbow or purple. The only problem is that it's too early.
So, sadly enough, there's no post today. Maybe Saan will have more inspiration tomorrow.
At last (on request of the class Y-chromosone), Saan and the rainbow poi. Photographer: sis. Instructor: same sis. Hence the funky eyes and the funky expression. Sadly enough, no real move being done. Saan needs more practice.
Saan's sister's fish are dying, one by one. It started once they added more fish to the three surviving. It usually does. You should, apparently, place the critters in some sort of quarantine before adding them to the others, or you get neurotic orange blobs burying themselves under volcanic-rock-like chunks and getting stuck until they starve to death, diseased fish that foam over, fish that manage to destroy the plants in the aquarium and then roll over and die. Fish that contaminate the water until you've got an empty aquarium.
You should also start off with a few fish, then, slowly, one by one, add more. Eleven-year olds do not have that kind of patience. No, no, they want lots of fish, and quickly, too. They name them, based on their gender and species. We had three guppies called 'Blub', one called 'Blob' and a striped little thing called 'Bloib'. Apparently, the next time Saan's sis gets fish, the plan is to get them from a specialist and inform beforehand.
Saan still thinks that one or two simple goldfish would have worked just as well, but she's alone in that.
Regional elections are coming up over here, and Saan hates it. It means that suddenly everyone working near the city hall in the past four years suddenly has this obsessive need to spread their pictures and slogans no one understands, without permit to do so. TV makes it into something even more hysterical: there apparently is a problem with someone not white trying for mayor, even if he's second on the list and no one but the interviewer and the man's own, discriminated side of the population seems to have any problem at all with, every slight misstep or displeasure of the past four years gets digged up, polished and presented nationwide, every politician is corrupt but apparently, whatever they did to get corrupted improved their city.
Yes, Belgium discriminates; if you are not white or do not look very much like a Japanese tourist, you tend to get discrimated. That a muslim woman may not wear her headscarf while working with, say, machinery, something where that innocent piece of cloth is a very real safety hazard, that's sort of understandable. Why a teacher can't wear it, while a teacher can wear a cross or even jewish symbols of faith seems to be ridiculous. People with darker skin color rarely get shown in the media unless they are A) artists of some kind, celebrities B) criminals, C) presenting children's programs and talking on level with someone who is suffering from severe brain damage, D) eye candy, decoration, something easy to get into bed with, E) representatives of a part of the population with roughly the same cultural back ground during a political conflict, F) people who are no official inhabitants of Belgium, born and raised in Belgium or tourists, G) servants, waiters, janitors, people who do other people's dirty work, H) actors playing to be any of the above. Having an accent even gets you looked at funnily. Wearing uncommon clothing, having a daring hair style is the same as killing (some of) your opportunities in life. Saan has never been asked to show her passport to the nice policemen patrolling in the morning. Some kids from, say, African parentage sometimes get asked a dozen times a day. Belgium is told to have a problem between the south and northern part of it. No one except for politicians (who get bothered by having to print the tax forms in two languages, make every official web site in double) have. If you speak French, German or Dutch, people don't care. Just be Belgian. The fact that there's more trouble with Belgian kids beating foreign-looking kids up than the other way around is no problem.
All politcians are corrupt, no matter where you go. It's always picking either pest or cholera. They also are a different kind of corrupt than most non-politicians who are corrupt. The more they do for society, the more corrupt they are. You lessen the morning traffic jam, you manage to make half the schoolkids eat fruit and ban candy from the schools, you install more watering fountains, everything gets improved, and you'll get re-elected... But you'll be Satan incarnate when the papers get hold of you before the actual election.
So, that's in short, the insanity of Belgian regional elections. Saan is so very happy she's not eighteen yet right now.
At last (on request of the class Y-chromosone), Saan and the rainbow poi. Photographer: sis. Instructor: same sis. Hence the funky eyes and the funky expression. Sadly enough, no real move being done. Saan needs more practice.
