Friday, June 18, 2010

Weird

Two days ago I made the mistake of downloading a music file off the now-defunct Limewire P2P service. Somehow an infected file attached itself to the MP3, and a little while later I discovered that someone had hijacked my Gmail account and used it to spam my friends with a link to a phishing site. I don't think anyone opened the link, and most of my friends email servers bounced the message back as junk, but I had to change my passwords and log in again to make sure everything was secure. I thought I had done everything, but a moment ago I discovered I was Following my own blog. Weird, huh?

Apropos of Nothing

I saw two little news items this week that tickled my funny bone. Item one:

http://www.journalstandard.com/opinions/columnists/x1600618702/MY-VIEW-Game-ends-for-Touchdown-Jesus

A six-story high statue of Jesus in Ohio was struck by lightning Monday night and burned to the ground. Around the same time in North Carolina, the following occurred:

http://www.wcnc.com/home/Big-Foot-spotting-in-Cleveland-County-96348919.html

Check out the man's sketch of his sasquatch. Looks remarkably Jesus-like.

That's all for that. It's meaningless and possibly even offensive, but I just had to share.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

What Is That About?

My friends know my love-hate relationship with Facebook. I love being connected to my friends and family. It's been especially valuable in that way since I moved to Florida. I've also made some new friends. Some are friends of friends, others are people who share interests. My friend list jumped a bit when Mass Effect 2 came out. Some of my friends came to my attention because Facebook "suggested" them. That's how I came to be "friends" with a few celebrities. What brings me out tonight are the outliers. I'm speaking of the friend requests I've gotten from complete strangers who don't even share any interests. I know some people collect friends on Facebook, under some sort of "she who dies with the most friends on Facebook" vibe. That doesn't bother me too much.

What does get me is that I think some of my friends are guys with a trans fetish. Some of these men are Middle Eastern, or East African. I'm always open to making friends in new places, so I usually accept friend requests from strangers in faraway places. Occasionally I wonder what prompts their friend request, but I don't always give it a lot of thought. That may have to change.

A little while ago, I was playing a game on Facebook (Bejeweled Blitz, if anyone cares). I don't know why, but people always open chat windows when I'm playing a game. It's a minor annoyance, because my system freezes up while the chat applet sorts itself out. Anyway, I was playing the game, and I got a chat pop-up from a recently-added friend in Turkey. I won't share the whole chat, but it went something like this:

Him: hi

Me: (after checking to see the time in Turkey) Good morning.

Him: how r u?

Me: tired. it was a long day.

Him: why?

Him: cam plz

Him: i mean webcam

So already I'm a little suspicious. Why does he want to cam chat?

Him: r u male?

AHA! We come to to the heart of the matter.

Me: you read my profile?

Him: yes

Me: you know im trans?

Him: yes

Me: I am transitioning, but am not full-time yet

Him: do u have a male body?

SIGH

Me: yes

Him: oh

That was the end of that. So, it's cool that I'm trans, but not cool because I'm not trans enough. I get it now. He wanted to see my breasts. Men are pigs.

Alejandro (another new Gaga video)

Hit the title to go to the video on Lady Gaga's website.

Don't ask me what the song is about; all I can do is process the visuals. I was hooked when I saw the first hot soldier in fishnets and heels. There's so much going on here: militarism, sacrilegious imagery, some serious Madonna evocation (the star, not the other one) or outright robbery. Costumes out the wazoo. There's a serious steampunk vibe, with cyber undertones. One of the male models reminds me of young Tom Cruise, circa Taps. Dig the bra with M-16 barrels covering the nipples!

Sorry I haven't been more communicative of late. I've been suffering serious writer's block. I found the link to this in my email and got the bug back.