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The First Open Thread of May

And yet it still isn’t warm here in good old Indiana.  Between the crazy weather and Governor Daniels, I’m ready to move somewhere both warmer and more woman-friendly.  That’s not going to happen any time soon, but a girl can dream.

How was everyone’s Monday?  We had a great, if busy, day here at Persephone.  I’m ready to curl up with a glass of box wine and chat with my favorite commenters on the introwebs.  (That’s you guys.)  Extra heaping apologies for our schedule being more improvised than normal, I’m prepping to go dig into the server settings right now so tomorrow will be less of a surprise for all of us.

Also, please enjoy this picture of toy robots, because they’re cute.

By [E] Selena MacIntosh*

Selena MacIntosh is the owner and editor of Persephone Magazine. She also fixes it when it breaks. She is fueled by Diet Coke, coffee with a lot of cream in it, and cat hair.

48 replies on “The First Open Thread of May”

It’s May, everyone! I can almost smell the summer holidays! We’re not even halfway through the year and I’m already exhausted… Maybe because I’ve spent the first three and a half months of the year stressing about work and the last couple of weeks (Spring break and Labour Day long weekend included) fighting the flu. I don’t even have any exciting plans for the summer, I just want to be able to sit out in the sun drinking a cold beer for as long as I want, and not have to go home early to a pile of marking or an unfinished paper.

What about you, what are your plans for the spring/summer?

In other news, the guy sitting at the adjacent table keeps on looking at me. I don’t know what his deal is, but I’m going to nosh away on my biscotti and pretend like it’s not really creepy and awkward that I keep catching him in the act.

Just a little question/comment regarding site stuff:

1) Does Persephone load really slowly for anyone else? I feel like for the past month or so, the page takes a solid 25-30 seconds to load, whereas other sites only take 10 seconds max. Maybe its my computer and/or internet connection, but just wanted to check in with that.

2) Is there any way to make it so we can edit comments after they’ve been posted? You know, to fix typos, spelling errors, make arguments more comprehensible, etc.

Just wondering!

I use Firefox too, and while the site loads a little more slowly than other sites, it’s still under 10 seconds, I would say. Perhaps your version of Firefox needs to be upgraded (or even downgraded)- I had Firefox 4 for a little bit and it hated the Seph. Sticking with 3 and my endless patches for it.

I started massage therapy school in March and it’s super awesome and I love it. There are only 4 people in my class which is super awesome because we get SO MUCH individual attention however, one of my classmates is a super inconsiderate jerk. He’s come to class more than 20 minutes late on two different test days and he interrupted one class that he doesn’t have to take so he could get the notes for another class he missed the first two days of. Tomorrow, one of the other girls and I are going to complain about him interrupting our tests and classes because it’s completely ridiculous that teachers even sort of allow this to happen. Hopefully the whole thing will get handled in a professional manner and he’ll either shape up or ship out.

Oh, that is so annoying. I’m guessing because you have such a small class, the school is reluctant to take the chance of losing one of those tuition checks. That’s no excuse for his behavior, though. One of the things you’ll learn about in MT school (if you haven’t already) is how to be firm and assertive about inappropriate behavior. Those skills come in handy in lots of situations.

I’m trying desperately to find a silver lining in this. Here goes: The NDP is diametrically opposed to the values espoused by the Conservative government- perhaps this will force the Conservatives to come to more of a center ground in establishing policies than was previously done under a Liberal opposition?

ALSO SEEKWILL THE ARCTIC OCEAN IS COLD, SO NOT WORTH IT.

I don’t think Universal Healthcare will end, because I think that with a left opposition like the NDP the conservatives will be kept accountable. I think the big concern for Canadian organizations is cuts to subsidies of women’s advocacy organizations. De- funding of non-profits is a very GOP US style move, and it concerns me because in a lot of places in the USA people have to pay a fee (usually $5-10) to use homeless shelters because that`s actually the only way the shelter can continue to offer the service it provides.

Don’t y’all hate when friendships turn sour?

I made a lot of friends in high school and early college before I was politically active/feminist/anti-oppression. I changed, and they haven’t, and I’ve been really passive in weaning myself from them.

I met up with a friend on Friday who I thought was still like me–awkward, intellectually-minded, funny. I’ve always thought she was cute, as well, and we hooked up once. Well, since she transfered schools, she’s been working for a Really Important Film Studio and she spends all her time hobnobbing with celebs. She makes fat jokes, is now an avowed capitalist–we used to talk about feminism and socialism–just because SHE’S made it, no one else matters. She even said that her “coolness” would rub off on me if we hung out more. To test her, I said *trigger for ableist language*, “what if my lameness rubs off on you?”

I expected her to acknowledge the language of my statement and to immediately refute that I was “lame” or boring or whatever. Instead, she said, “I think I can take it.” Then, she introduced me to her latest bro friend–who joked about being able to hook up with lesbians if he got them drunk enough–and I was outta there.

My question is, how do you break off a friendship/confront someone like this?

Ugh. I guess you could continue being passive about it – stop being at all proactive about contacting her/making plans to catch up, and be ‘busy’ the next few times she tries to set something up. Hopefully she’s ‘cool’ enough to get the point now! *rolls eyes*

Do you think confronting her would help? She sounds kind of stuck in her own happy place right now, and hearing/listening is the first thing to go when your head’s up your ass. My personal plan in these situations is usually to write a strongly-worded letter I don’t send and then do the fade-out. Results are mixed, YMMV.

You can have our warm weather here. I’m monitoring a construction crew all summer long and by Wednesday its going to be in the mid-90s. There is no such thing as spring in Southern California. I’m not a fan. I’ve already started my countdown to autumn

Not to rub it in, but after complaining for months about our shitty Canadian “spring” weather, it’s finally resembling a proper spring! I even have a bit of a sunburn from this weekend!!!

Now I’m settling in with my vino and watching CTV to see what happens with the Canadian elections. I’ll admit, as an American expat I have NO idea what’s going on or what to expect, but I do like that Leyton fellow. He seems nice.

I’m pretty nervous too. I voted NDP but secretly wish the Liberals were a stronger opponent for the Conservatives. I think this article was very interesting: How the Liberals are losing a two-front war. It basically says that instead of attacking the left (NDP, Green), the Liberals should have been courting those who sway towards the Conservatives by playing up their ability to balance the budget, and they strengthened the financial system so it could weather the 2008 storm,whereas “the Conservatives spent money like drunken teenage hoodlums with a stolen credit card:.”

There is a very wide swath of the Canadian public that would describe itself as “fiscally conservative, socially liberal.” They don’t want to hear another word about gay marriage or abortion or capital punishment. They’re wary of grand social engineering schemes, although they insist on a comprehensive social safety net. They generally like free markets and low taxes, but they don’t worship them. They tend to be pragmatists. The one thing they are truly dogmatic about is balancing the budget. They may vote Conservative. They may vote Liberal. They will not vote NDP, or anything that smacks of the NDP.

The Liberals seemed to be almost invisible during this election when they should have been stealing seats from the Conservatives and left the rest of the lefties to vote NDP.

Ooh, thank you thank you thank you! I’ve been wanting some kind of straightforward (and entertaining) resume of Canadian politics. This does the job perfectly!

(on a side note, I didn’t know that Ben Mulroney from etalk was the son of a Prime Minister!)

Leyton’s a pretty cool guy, politics aside. His nephew ( I think, it might have been a cousin) was in my high school and he came to our performances. Always really funny and down-to-earth. Once, during our Stomp knock-off group’s performance, he accidentally got hit with a flying broomhead, and he totally laughed it off.

Leyton’s a pretty cool guy, politics aside. His nephew ( I think, it might have been a cousin) was in my high school and he came to our performances. Always really funny and down-to-earth. Once, during our Stomp knock-off group’s performance, he accidentally got hit with a flying broomhead, and he totally laughed it off.

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