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Name: Rachel.
Country: United States
State: Florida
Metro: Tampa Bay Area
Gender: Female
Interests: Swing dancing. Singing emphatically to my steering wheel. Writing. Reading. Exploring. Falling asleep with my boyfriend. Driving with my sister. Discussing trains with my brother and soon-to-be-sister-in-law. Remembering what it's like to fall in love with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Expertise: Being paradoxic.
Occupation: Student. Waitress. Human.
Industry: Mexican Food.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  and blue ruin
Member Since:
10/12/2004
 True  Lifetime
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| The flags are always at half mast in Tallahassee,
we are always in mourning,
whether we know it or not.
A military base got shot up and I think thirteen people died; I heard it was in reaction to racial discrimination, profiling, you know. In response, every flag in the country is at half mast.
Lots of people get racially profiled, sexually profiled,
gender, creed, age,
judged,
leered at,
killed over.
When I think about Nietzsche it's almost impossible for me to be happy.
At any rate,
it seems like it's always half mast here.
It's like the state capital always keeps them just so
in preparation for the inevitable
a bombing, a shooting,
a lynching.
A byline in a newspaper no one reads.
SEX SHOP GOES OUT OF BUSINESS
says the headline
and right below that to the left,
12 soldiers die in car bomb in Iraq, details on page 3
And to the right,
Teenage boy takes life because of being bullied for his sexuality, details on page 8
Page three doesn't actually exist,
there is no comfort in a 200 word snapshot into the urban legend that is Baghdad.
Page eight is a slur of misappropriated quotes and fond pictures with the conservative opinion left out
for respect.
A lot of things are like that.
Nothing is real until it is relevant,
and even then its catered to an audience,
which in itself is a fallacy.
I think about Nietzsche all the time.
More than half of the time, you've stopped reading by now;
it won't make a difference if you got to page three or page eight.
Nine times out of ten the statistics won't haunt you.
Four women of every ten have sexual dysfunction disorder.
One in every six women will be a victim of sexual assault in their lifetime.
One in every thirty three men will be a victim of sexual assault in their life time.
If a month starts on a Sunday, there will be a Friday the thirteenth.
80% of kids don't have more than four drinks at a college party according to a survey.
100% of the aforementioned survey participants lied.
Nine times out of ten it won't make a difference if you read that or not.
More than half the time, you've stopped reading by now.
God is dead,
says Nietzsche.
Let us fly the flag for him.
Why fly it for God?
What has he done for us?'
I suppose his lack of intervention always gives us something to ignore in the newspaper.
Nietzsche is dead,
says Rachel Parker.
Let us fly the flag for him.
The flag is always at half mast in Tallahassee,
I am always in mourning. | | |
| 
So, we've all seen X-Men and Lord of the Rings and been vivified by Magneto's villainy, and touched to the core by Gandalf's elderly wisdom. These characters, as we all know, were performed by Sir Ian McKellen, a brilliant, eloquent, flamingly gay actor.
He came to give a lecture at FSU that sixty other people and myself witnessed in a very personal meet and greet. He spoke about coming out and how it was a very long journey for him that ended mostly in acceptance and gave him the position of being able to teach people about what LGBT really means. He referred to God as a beautiful, "great lesbian, she is," and spoke about injustices that were important to address in every institution. At one point someone said, "We're trying to petition that one may not discriminate against any kind of sexuality anywhere, etc." and Sir Ian replied, "What may we not discriminate against?"
"Well, race, sex, religion..."
"Religion?" he said, lithe frame rising to the challenge of the word. "Why should religion be before sexuality? One is not born a Christan. One is not born a Muslim, or Jewish, or any other such religion; one chooses to partake in this faith. I was born gay, and that should take precedence over matters of choice."
Cristina laughed as I leaped to my feet in applause.
It was a gay, liberal festival in that room and I felt an overwhelming sense of belonging. Earlier that day I had been in such a horrible mood (Nietzsche induced, no less) and I had written some horrible arbitrary chicken scratches about God that were truly banal and full of bitterness. Passing from that funk into this wonderful venue of acceptance was such a paradigm shift.
I asked a question at one point, which allowed me to partake in a wonderful discourse with Sir McKellen, which was validating and invigorating at the same time. Being able to have the opportunity to meet and have a brief conversation with the man set my heart aglow, as I'm sure you can infer.
To end the hour and a half q/a, he rose and performed an original piece from a collaboration Shakespeare wrote with another author. The play had never been performed until 400 years after Shakespeare's death, and McKellen had been cast as the original role for it (therefore making him the last person alive to be an original cast member in a Shakespearian play; trippy, no?) It was a brilliant monologue, and everyone left inspired and perhaps a bit more united than when they had entered. It was a wonderful experience.
On other matters, my intense workload has finally ceased (temporarily.) I am no longer up to my ears in midterms and work, which is very nice. I also have a cat now, named Poe (Poe Parker, to be precise) which, despite my innate allergy to cats, I am surprisingly receptive to this one. We are rather close already as he knows how to paste links on the computer by himself and listens to Owl City and the Halo 1 soundtrack.
That and I've spent a billion time with Jeannine Newcomer, who knows practically every insane intimate detail about my life now because I have no conception of filtering my mind. We've gone everywhere, done everything, and I'm never going to get sick of her.
Besides that, just playing WoW (lvl 55 Blood Elf Warlock, Blackrock PVP -- Falsetta the Hallowed)
ahem,
and missing my friends, parents, seastar, DOG, and botfriend in Larghettooooo, but I'll be home for Thanksgiving
(before you know it.) | | |
| Member Since: 10/12/2004
Oh Xanga, I love you so! <3
Lights and Owl City, February 2010!
Today is a good day, a goddamn great day.
I'm gonna go buy some combat boots. | | |
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