schneefink | (no subject)

I'm doing that thing again where there are so many things I want to post about that I write nothing. So, random things in random order.

- I took a vacation day tomorrow, and I'm so glad I did. I did a lot this week, mostly meeting with friends, which I love but with work it's very tiring.
For example on Monday I went with a friend to the film festival at Rathausplatz because she'd never seen Disney's Fantasia. (It's not as good as I remember it from when I was ten, especially the Pastorale - surprise!racism that I never noticed before, stuff like that - but most parts of it are still fantastic.)
Tuesday is by now semi-official film night, only we decided to cook together first, so we didn't have time for a whole movie. We had a great time in the kitchen, food was delicious, and we watched the beginning of The Fifth Element.
Wednesday was debate training.

- Debate training! We had several new people, so we had a pro-am room (one experienced debater + one novice in each team.) "My" novice did really well for his first speech! Prep is a work in progress, but that's normal. The motion was "TH regrets the Arab Spring" - when he said he doesn't know anything about that I said me too because I was trying to remember how many years ago it started and how many countries were involved except the few I did remember, but it turned out he actually had no idea what it referred to, which did surprise me.
Later on someone tried to tell me that all muslims want to install sharia law everywhere, "I'm not anti-muslims but", absolutely refusing to listen, it was so bad I just stopped engaging him after a few minutes. I know these people exist, but I don't expect to meet them in the debate club :( (With some luck he won't stay long.)

- The current debate in the media about gendered language is driving me absolutely nuts. There are some good articles, but the vast majority of comments are just so stupid, their whole way of argumentation is just... it's so dismissive, condescending, it's painful to read and it makes me so angry at the same time. Just - URGH.

- I'm currently reading "Superman: Red Son" and enjoying it a lot so far. Tomorrow I'll have time to read! And swim! And sleep in in the morning!

- There's currently a fest about SGA's ten year anniversary going on. I feel sort of ambivalent about my lack of enthusiasm for it: SGA has been such an important part of my fannishness for so long, and SGA fandom has been very important for me for a long time, so to find out that I sort... barely care, at this point, feels very strange and a bit sad.

- Today I found out that Vienna has a women's ice hockey team. I mean it's sort of logical, I just never thought about it, never read about it, never heard about it... I'm sort of pissed about that, actually, and perhaps more surprised than I should have been. I'm definitely going to watch when the season starts again.

- Tomorrow I'm going dancing with a girl I met recently and like a lot, I'm really excited about it. More hopefully later.

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Yay, post! I totally recognize this "want to post but so much oh dear" feeling...

Anyway, hope you have a great time dancing with the girl tomorrow! \o/

Oh, and I found this post about gendered language very much to the point, and the best response to a lot of callous arguments.

Thanks!

I hesitate to write more about it because I just met her a week ago and who knows, but still, exciting!

Yeah, that's a good comparison. My "favorite" arguments are when men (or sometimes women) say "but all those masculine forms are actually gender-neutral!" or "all of my female friends don't care" or "those feminists are oppressing us" or "but we have to care about the ~elegance of our language" - the debater part of me wants to systematically take it all apart, common sense tells me not to engage trolls on the internet, and pretty much the rest of me is cursing a lot.

I kinda understand your SGA feelings. It's the first fandom I actively participated in and I still have much love for it, but I can't seem to do anything about that anymore. I started a vid months ago, but I only put like two clips on the time line. I still like the idea and I'd love to watch it, but I can't make it myself, at least not now... Like you said, strange and a bit sad.

I remember how much I loved all the fanworks, and I'm sure they're still objectively great, but that emotional connection and/or interest just isn't really there anymore. It would be interesting to see which fanworks hold up well now that I'm out of the fandom and which don't, but I don't care enough to try and find out.

I'm really glad that when I left SGA fandom I didn't lose all the good friends I made there :)

I think I understand what you mean with connection and/or interest. I still like to rewatch SGA vids and sometimes I get all nostalgic, so there's still something there I guess (though I don't actively search for new ones). But the spark that motivated me to go through 100 episodes of source to find the perfect clips, well, that's missing. Maybe I'm also a bit "spoiled" by making so many movie vids lately - so much less source to go through :) (But mostly I think it's the certain kind of connection that just makes me wanna do a certain fannish work and if I don't have it then it becomes more of a chore.)

And yes, same here :)

What did you think of Fifth Element?

Leaving fandoms is always very strange and a bit sad.

Dare I ask about the media debate on gendered language? /lives under a rock

Ooh, dancing! Let us know how it goes. I hope you have fun.

I haven't finished it yet! I really should. Tomorrow, probably. I got to Bruce Willis' character bringing Leeloo to the priest. So far I enjoyed it :)

The debate is about (Austrian) German. It started when an agency for Austrian norms recommended not using the "Binnen-i." You haven't missed anything. There were maybe one or two good articles, but they had to start at a low level because of the general low level of the discussion. Language is also political and formed by the society that uses it? You don't say!

Thanks :)