Calla's Seventy-Seventh Post

What is one to do with a $481.00 non-refundable ticket that one doesn't wish to use? I suppose it could be transferred to another time and place, costing $180.00 in the process. I could take a $301.00 trip on the $481.00 ticket and it could all be fine and dandy.

And I would consider it too if it weren't for Callista. I don't want to miss her.

There is a logic somewhere in this madness; and I'm the one who has it, despite accusations that I am unreasonable and wrong.

And it may be unreasonable from one perspective. We are all, after all, subject to our positionality. And if it is unreasonable, that does not make it wrong. You can continue to 'reasonably' destroy the planet while I remain stubbornly unreasonable until I contribute to a definitive difference in the world around me. Those who aspire only to what is reasonable seldom enact positive social change.

Gandhi was unreasonable.

I am sick of being held hostage by the dominant social norm. Hegemony, I will not be your submissive.

Though I will be labeled "selfish," "bitchy," "childish," "immature," and I'm sure the list goes on, how am I more of these than those on the other side? I am not. I appear so because the common discourse is not on my side.

Baltimore public schools: Meatless Mondays. Lou Dobbs says it’s a political storm in the making. Glenn Beck says its indoctrination. Why are the "Got Milk?" posters decorating our school cafeterias not accused of the same?

Oh right, dominant social discourses . . . Meat is not murder. Milk is not theft. And these products will not cause diabetes, cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, colon problems, global warming, water shortages, world hunger, deforestation, pollution, community destruction, avian flu, swine flue, mad cow disease, E. Coli, workers' rights violations, exploitation, or death. (by the way: they already do.)

I do not want to fly across the country. Sitting on a plane for over 5 hours is not a pleasant experience. I do not want to be called "psycho" or "a brat." (I will be.) I do not want to spend my days off of work and school away from my home and my things and my cats. I do not want to have a screaming and crying match with the people I love. (I will.) I do not want this headache, these stomach cramps, these shaky hands or nervous thoughts that have been following me since Sunday night. I do not want to fly across the country.

And if I don't? Others will have leverage to refuse to do the same come January. And if I do and we resort to fighting? I will be the one at fault by hegemony's law.

Some background information: Thanksgiving is on my birthday. I prefer not to be around symbols of the fallen world on any given day. But I assumed birthdays had leveraging power. (BTW, I was wrong. People are more sentimental about Thanksgiving than Birthdays. You may need that information in the future.) I asked if we could not have a turkey, but could have other items made with animal products. This was shot down. I asked if we could have a turkey and no other items contributing to the problems outlined in a ramble above. This was also shot down, despite my offer to do the cooking. Some people were worried some other people wouldn't come unless they could indulge all their destructive sentiments. And if I am threatening not to come, that is crazy. That is unreasonable. That is unfair.

And that is your background information. This is the last time I will be using my Birthday to ask for a gift.

I will also be a brat when I refuse their birthday cake or gifts that someone may have bothered to get me. (I will accept something from Callista. Something from Chris. Everyone else needs to stop kidding themselves . . . If they ever were.)

If this wretched holiday of gluttony and greed had not fallen on the marginally less wretched (though much more vain) holiday of my birth, I never would have thought to ask for such an apparently unreasonable gift.

I think my family is harder than most. I say this not only because I've had my fair share of stepmoms, so the rules are always changing, but also because I know other people's families. I know a couple that is getting married this weekend, and they are cooking an all vegan Thanksgiving for their families on Thanksgiving. (This is something I didn't even consider asking. I know people hold deadly sentiment too dear.) I know people who have gotten family members to go completely vegan for a week or a month in honor of birthdays. My husband's extended family has gone to vegetarian restaurants to celebrate birthdays that weren't even ours just to be respectful. People have suggested I offer to cook the meal if I want it to be vegan, as if this would solve the problem . . . Because to reasonable people, it would. To a normal family, having all the sides vegan would not be a big deal . . . especially if Thanksgiving fell on a vegan's birthday and that vegan offered to do all the cooking.

(This is what is unreasonable: I wanted to spend the day doing something I don't enjoy and have that be my sole birthday present.)

Gluttony, gluttony--the deadly sin that kills (see rambling list above if you would like to know how.)

I hate this situation. I don't want to even fly across the country. This would not make things better. People would still say, "Where's Calla?" and the response would still be, said in a snarky tone, "Oh, she refused to come because we didn't make the side dishes vegan." (For the record, I didn't ask you to make the side dishes vegan. I asked you to let ME make the side dishes vegan.) So, this would not make things better in terms of call and response . . . but at least I wouldn't have to see these people. No one would come by my sister's house before or after the meal, see me there, and lecture me about how stubborn and bitchy I am.

I am stubborn. I am not bitchy. I am quite the opposite of bitchy. I care too damn much. I care about animals, and people, and the environment, and this makes me unable to take part in the dominant social discourse. I won't sit down at your selfish table of gluttonous lies. "

"Thanksgiving." Can you imagine giving thanks for global warming? For an unsustainable use of land and water? For cancer? For diabetes? For theft? I can't. And I won't. And I won't be a part of this dinner. And I will bear the brunt of, "Stop acting crazy and just COME" because I have a $481.00 ticket and a 5 year old to visit.

These nerves and shakes and pains are making it hard to get through the days. And I don't want them anymore. And I don't want to fly across the country and watch others soak up sentiment.



Too upset to find a picture.

Calla's Fifty-First Post pt. 2

So, this is unorthodox, with the numbering and what not. . . but remember I had to ask Christin about it. So, these are some pictures. How great are the computer ones!! Chris is using my computer! The very one, whose name is Silver, on which I am writing this very post! (Geez, who uses the word very like that!) Anyway, that is from Thanksgiving and so is the one with the Chuchumoomoo. The one with Chris in the blue thing is from Christmas time at Makutu's Island. (What a swell play place!) And also, the reason I am allowed to put these up is because Christin said only four of us read the blog anyway. . . I hope she is right. If she is wrong it might be dangerous cause I say things like places we go to play. If it ever gets popular for real, I could always delete this.

This can also qualify as a guest cat. . . But that was on accident. I hope the Kaylee cat doesn't get mad at me cause she was supposed to be next!!!




This qualifies as a Guest Cat, but since it was on accident, I am not giving him a number. He lives with my friend Audrey in L.A. and the vet said he is part Manx and part Siamese. . . AND THAT IS WHY HE HOPS!! He is cute when he hops.

Calla's Fifty-First Post

So, there is oh-so-much to catch up on! Whatever will we do? Well. . . the goatfather is a wine made from the Goats du Roam people in South Africa. They make vegan wines and the goats lead them to the fruit to use. . . or something dysfunctionally cute like that. Perhaps you did not know that some wines are not vegan. This is true of beer as well. Some wines are refined with eggs, or fish blood or other gross things. They are just fined with said products, the said products AREN'T IN THE WINES AND BEERS. . . So, that was a nice bit of information, huh?

Um, so that's the goats.

What else is happening is I am so so so so so so so so so so so so sad about the veal calf friends! I don't know why, but last night I got super depressed about them, and it will not go away. I am sad for the Mommies too!! The babies are just ripped away from the mommies and the mommies cry out until their voice is horse and the whole while they are being endlessly milked for human consumption. This is not right. This is actually sort of pretty much evil. I cry over it a lot. I am going to protest Foie Gras on Valentine's day. That is evil too. Jesus does not like us abusing his creation and acting as if such sentient beings were placed on earth for our pleasure when they were actually placed on earth for God's pleasure. Ruthless Dominion is no way to rule. :( Tabby wrote a thing that I will make him copy and paste here as a guest post. I agree with like 96% of it or something. There is a little with which I don't agree, but all and all he is pretty good at life and writing so it will be swell to put up here. You should also read the book Is God a Vegetarian? I think that book is also swell even though the answer is no. . . because Jesus ate Fish. But the conclusion is that we should be. . . So i like it cause I don't like hurting the baby moos. :(

Um, more things happen all the time, but I can't remember them all. I know that I will put up this case statement I had to write. It is for my fundraising and development class. I had to pick a nonprofit on which to base all my projects for the semester, and I, OBVIOUSLY, picked Farm Sanctuary because they are the bestest people in the world! So, I had to write a case statement that was due today at 8:00 p.m. and it might be sucky cause I really don't know so much about fundraising yet since it is only three weeks into the semester. . . But I will put it up here anyway because I love the animals!!! Some of it is a little plagiarized off their website and mission statements and thingys because my teacher said that was OK since we are supposed to be pretending like we work for the company anyway. . . So, it's not like I lifted paragraphs or anything. Just some lists I have are the same as the website's. . . Only, I don't remember what (or actually if anything at all) is plagiarized. Next time I will keep track. Today this girl asked if there was someway we could cite stuff so we didn't feel guilty and my professor said "sure, put sentences you didn't write in red or something, I don't care." So, next time I will put sentences not of my own creation in red. But I didn't do that this time. I hope I don't get sued or something.

My senior thesis is going to suck so hardcore that it is like we are in a blackhole! (haha, that's funny because it is an entirely inaccurate description of what a blackhole does. . . I took a physics class once for the fun of it. . . I don't remember what it was called. I'll look it up. I looked it up. But not in a transcript, just on an assignment I turned in once. It said "contemporary physics." I don't know if that was the full title. The point is. . . I learned that that is not what a blackhole does!) So this is why it sucks: my pre-proposal is due on Friday but I am not good at life, so I have not done enough research to write a pre-proposal. That is what I have to do all of tomorrow. BLAH BLAH BLAH. When the actual proposal is due 16 days from now, I'll put it up here so you can see what I am doing and maybe even help me!!!

So, it was someone special's birthday today. (But really yesterday, as in Feb 11th because I am writing after midnight. But she lives in Arizona so it is still her birthday there. But she was born in Ohio which is the same time zone as New York which is where I live now. . . So, who knows!?) Also, no one remembers at what time exactly she was born! haha. We know Christopher was born at 5:45. We just know Callista was born sometime in the afternoon. . . It was after I was done with school 'cause I know that 'cause I saw her come out of Christin's vagina. EWWW. No, know what was gross? Not the blood. . . THE STRETCH MARKS. This is graphic. Christin might not like that this is up here. Seriously though Callista was born five years ago and it was the cutest day ever! (No it wasn't. She looked ugly as an infant. .. let's not kid ourselves.) BUT, it turned into the cutest day ever because she is cute now!!! I wonder if I'm allowed to put a picture of her up instead of one of my cats up. Would Christin let me? I have her on Facebook, so this really isn't much different. I will ask. In the mean-time, this post will remain vacant of pictures! .

Um, I'm sure there is more, but I'm not sure what it is. Oh yes I am. Tabby has class with stupid people that think they control reality based on how they treat the objects around them. For example, Mama Kitty becomes a cow when I treat her like a cow. . . That is the idea. They are dumb. (that is not the example they gave though, because they don't know Mama and they don't know that she is really a cow.)

Ok, now that is all for now. I will put up the case study and make Tabby put up the guest post.

Love,
Calla and her kitties. (They are both asleep in their beds that they love!)

Calla's Fortieth Post

Wow, is that really how you spell 40th? It looks a little dumb. It should probably be more like fourtieth.

May I ask you a question? This is the question: How come everyone is so stupid!? Tabby's dad put on that show "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" and the answer, seems to be, yes. But then you think about how smart and educated are not exactly the same thing. It is not fair to say I am smarter than a fifth grader because I am 22. So, I might know more than them. But that doesn't make me smarter automatically. I bet when I was in 5th grade I was smarter than most people who knew a lot more than I did. OK, but that's beyond the point. The point is that most of the people on this show are just dumb. I'll admit I didn't know what organ produced insulin (the pancreas, by the way, in case you also didn't know.), but these people don't know really simple things like which vitamin is absorbic acid. Now, if you've ever read the ingredient list to anything you know that. So, it makes me wonder whether or not these people ever went grocery shopping in their lives. Like seriously, a lot of it seems to be knowledge people have to acquire in their daily lives if they plan on functioning in society. But, people don't know that "own" is the root word of disown, and that McKenzie is a proper noun. . . not a preposition. "In" is a preposition. It is just kind of confusing to me that these people exist.

Ok, second example of stupidity is CNN. I told you before they make me brain dead or something. But seriously, I was listening to it today while I cleaned, and they had "some of the smartest economists in the world" or whatever on the show being all like, "We have a trade deficit. We import too much oil from the middle east and too many goods from China." Uh. . . no shit Sherlock. I, who have taken exactly one economics class in my entire life, and this wasn't even a real economics class, it was about urban economies, could've told you we import too much! Oh wait. . . I DID tell you that. STOP BUYING ALL YOUR SHIT FROM CHINA AND LEARN TO RIDE A BIKE DOWN THE STREET.

Furthermore, these people on CNN (not the economists necessarily, just everyone at the news station probably) had never heard the terms NIMBY or "green collar jobs." And they had this other stupid chick on who was all, "We can't have big government telling our cities what to do. If they want more urban sprawl it is their prerogative." Right, and it is also my prerogative NOT TO DROWN when global warming causes the ocean to flood the island on which I live. So no, they aren't allowed to continue urban sprawl stupid bitch. I don't get it.

Also, people hate kitties and puppies. That is my conclusion. The humane society is trying to raise money to spay and neuter animals, and I tried to get all these people on facebook to help. But nope, they all want to get bit by a stray animal and die of rabies. Whatever, I guess that's their right. (http://photocontest.humanesociety.org/contest.html?page=viewIndex&contestId=1&clearSearch=1&paging=0 type in "Baby Kitty" and "Mama Kitty" on the search button.) Seriously, though, five dollars. They can't give five dollars to prevent the birth, and then death of, millions of unwanted lovey-faces.

Ok, so what else is happening in the world? CHRIS IS TEN TODAY! WOO-HOO PARTY. Except I can't party with him because I don't live near him. This is sad sad news. I have been babysitting children for a decade now that means! Someone hire me to watch your children. I need money.

Um, also what is happening is I don't understand the logic of lots of people. OK, so there is always like nude artwork or whatever. Alright, I have no problem with it. And a few people do, but as long as the piece doesn't look sexualized, most people will think of it as art. They won't throw some hissy fit about obscenity and objectification of the female body. (Let's face it, most of it is women.) Um, did I miss something here? Isn't the female body being objectified for the sake of art? Yes. Yes it is. Try to argue otherwise and you'll probably sound dumb. . . but you can try. So what? Now it's ok to objectify oneself for art but not for sex? 'Cause, face it, these same people who will like nude figures in art will be all up in arms if you show them some soft-core porn where the woman has a bra and panties on but is posed all sexual and her nipples are hard. I'm not kidding. Show these people real porn and they'll be all, "stop objectifying women!" "This is smut!" "Women's rights" "blah blah blah." Objectification is objectification. And if no one is coerced into this "objectification" I don't care if they are nude so men and women can look at them and go "hmmm. . . I love the way the light bends across the breasts here." Or so men and women can look at them and go "Wow, that's hot. I'm gonna masturbate now." Your body is being used for something apart from your mind to pleasure other people in either of the situations. And they are the exact same thing. I really want someone to argue with me. If you hate them both, ok, fine. If you like them both, ok, fine. If you are against porn but ok with nude art, you're stupid.

It's the same thing with manual labor even. If you need to make money, and you are strong, you are going to go be a mover or a construction worker or something. Your mind is not involved in this in any real way. You want money, you use your body. So, if someone who is hot, not necessarily strong, needs money, why can't s/he pose nude for someone? It's the same concept. It's just that everyone's afraid of sex. We live in such a sex-negative country. I don't understand why. There is nothing wrong with talking about sex. (In fact, there's something right in talking about it. Talking is the only way people can become informed. Information leads to well thought out decisions. Well thought out decisions are just better than decisions which are not thought out.) There is nothing wrong with nudity. Everyone has a body.

Probably it's Paul's fault. Why that man got to write half of the bible is beyond me. The man is asexual. And some people are asexual. That's fine. But don't expect everyone else to be. Just like if you don't like the taste of chocolate. . . well, many people, myself among them, are gonna disagree with you. Chocolate just tastes good. (hmmm. . . . dark dark chocolate. . . ) So, Paul, with his asexuality, somehow convinced us all that bodies are bad and disgusting. If bodies are nasty, how come Christ had one?

Then this leads us to the whole Christ never had sex. . . and if you're Catholic to some weird "neither did Mary" argument. First off, why wouldn't Mary have sex? If Jewish people were commanded to procreate, uh, I think Mary and Joseph would've had sex. And about Christ. So what if he didn't have sex. Maybe he was asexual. Maybe he was gay and couldn't because then he would be unclean according to Jewish custom. Maybe he knew he would die at age 33 and be unable to provide for a family. Maybe he was just too dang busy performing miracles and being God and what not. The fact that Christ didn't have sex is really no evidence that it's a bad thing.

I love tangents. OK, so what else is dumb about the world? Karl Barth. Well, I don't really know. Tabby knows. I guess there's all these people that don't understand the analogy of being. I will tell you what it is though. I maybe will paint it and scan it in here one day, and I will maybe not. But, picture this. There is a picture and it is pure purple in the center and pure red at the edges. The in-between is fading from purple to red. Get it? (If not, just re-read that until you do.) Now, here is the color code

red = grace/God
blue = nature/the world

So, that is the analogy of being as I understand it. I said so to Tabby and he said "yeah! You get it! That's a perfect description." But then we modified it a little like an hour later to say there are some spots that are redder than the purple around them.

Jesus is impossible to put in the picture because He would be fully blue and fully red. . . NOT PURPLE. Just fully blue and fully red simultaneously. This is why Christianity is like nuts.

I would just also like to say that I am bad at interpreting the world in a standard way. I don't have expectations that most people have. This causes me to not understand a lot of jokes and to often become confused by "human nature." So, I have two examples of what I mean. The first one is a commercial. And there are these cowboys talking all manly about what a tough winter it is and how so-and-so lost half his herd. Then they zoom out and they're both eating these pancakes with candies and syrups all over. And they say "hey hun" (to the waitress they say this. The waitress in the commercial.) They say, "hey hun, can I get some more. . . " And I forget what they say but it has something to do with giggles and happiness and what not. And Tabby laughed. And I said "I don't get it." And he informed me that I don't get things because I never have expectations. He explained the joke to me. These were "manly men" eating breakfast and we zoomed out and they were eating like "girly" foods. So, turns out the commercial was for Denny's. And I guess the point was that if you want "real" breakfast you have to abuse pigs and chickens. How on EARTH, would I be expected to have that expectation? I don't think anyone should abuse animals.

So, I started thinking about what he said about how I don't have expectations and I thought of a really humorous example. It was a PETA shirt and it said "woof, woof, woof" all over it. And in the bottom corner was a pig saying woof. I didn't get it. Christin was the one who had to explain that one to me. She said we were supposed to expect a dog. . . but INSTEAD there's this pig. . . So, it's being all like "we need to think of pigs the same way we think of dogs." I guess the problem is I ALREADY think of pigs that way. (CUTE GIANT LOVEFACES!!)

I think this lack of expectations helps me to appreciate scary-go-round. Most people don't get it. But I get it perfectly. It is always so funny. John Allison is bad at regular expectations too. He just must be. (BUT OH MAN IS HE AMAZING AT GHOST BANDS!!!!!)

I think that is all I have to say for now. I start school again tomorrow. That makes me want to puke. Yucka-yuck-yuck.

Love,
Calla and furry friends.

Calla's Nineteenth Post

This is the first post I am writing since Obama became the President Elect. My sister cried a lot a lot out of joy. Mostly this is because my adorable nephew face (who is nine years old) is half-black with a single white mommy and he has been obsessed with race since he could talk. (Probably before he could talk, but he couldn't express this fact until he was two.) So, since the primaries he has been loving Barack Obama, and he cried when Obama gave his speech on MLK jr. day. So, my sister cried and such. WOO HOO Obama!

This was like the earliest they've called the election. Obama is overcompensating for the time he got yelled out for not wearing a flag pin by having like 8 million flags behind him for his acceptance speech. IIIINTERESTING.

Who is going to be in his cabinet? I hope he creates a department of peace and appoints Kucinich. HEHEHEHEHE. That would be super super cool. . . But I think Kucinich might be the only one nutty enough to suggest creating such a department.

Obama is about to give his speech. He has his cute babies with him! It speaks highly of him that his kids are cute. The little one looks good in black and I like that they had the balls to dress her in only black. . . Most little kids can't pull that off because black clothing looks like you're in mourning.

Ok, I'm gonna watch this.

Buh-Bye. Sorry no kitty pictures. I want to watch an historic moment.