welcome

The hell does that even mean, fynndin??? - Net Neutrality refers to the fact that currently internet providers (ISPs) forward requested internet traffic to you, regardless of where it came from. Not out of the goodness of their souls but because net neutrality forces them to do so. You want to acquire any kind of content from anywhere on the web? Great. They give it to you. That’s what you pay them for, that’s what law forces them to do.

But why would anyone want to change this? - Many  arguments have been made to end this state, most of all that the end of net neutrality would make it a lot easier to end a lot of illegal transactions on the internet. That is not quite as easy as the proposers make it out to be, but that they won’t tell you.

What these people imagine (or at least tell you) will happen when you end net neutrality is, that ISPs will only stop you from accessing a web page because it contains or promotes illegal content.

First of all - what is illegal? On some things there is a very wide consensus, but the internet is kind of international. Where is “illegal” defined? By whom? Is homosexual content illegal? Selling weed? Resources for abortion? Selling guns? Promotion of religions or atheism?

Second - currently there is no other means of control at place or planned to stop ISPs from banning or in other ways not accessing other resources for you. What if they decide it’s too much of a hassle for not enough return to let you access anything that is not, say, content owned by Google, Amazon and Facebook? Corporate controlled internet access in every part of your life is not a mere Dystopian idea any more if net neutrality dies.

So the actual argument against net neutrality is, that offering only access to limited and controlled parts of the internet makes it easier for ISPs to “grant you security” (by keeping you inside their pre-selected race tracks) and that controlling what you do on the web is easier in general. Not that anyone would ever want to do that, amiright?

When and why is it about to die? - The FCC is going to put net neutrality to vote in Congress tomorrow. So it’s that time again. Call your congress representative, write e-mails and spread this on every channel you can.

So this is a US matter right now? Why would I (in the not-US) even care then? - Long story short: Because we are next, guys. Our not-US governments tend to a) copy-cat all kinds of control laws the US can push through and b) have a much easier time doing so if they can point to the US to show that it’s already working well. Even if it’s not, facts don’t matter here it seems.

Idea for a play:

Germany, some time end of the 20th, beginning of the 21st century.

Six people, all looking very official and business-like, have a meeting with the goal of founding a club. They are very serious about it. One has collected source material as reference on how to write statutes for a club. They have met to agree upon statutes and sign the founding documents.

Throughout the meeting several problems arise, some of which are less important (maybe one of them doesn’t like the food someone brought along), some more (you actually need at least 7 founding members, ‘s German law, that’s why).

It is vital that while it starts out as the most boring, annoyingly slow paced play you could imagine, it ends in turmoil, disaster, probably something catches on fire, people get into a fistfight and someone is eating parts of the half-written statutes. There are in fact by now at least eight people involved.

In hindsight, the viewer should not be able to pinpoint how, why and when it went so utterly wrong. Also, it is completely unclear, what even the broad topic of the club was supposed to be. It was never mentioned. Maybe unconnected, obscure tools or regular activities were hinted or mentioned, but nothing solid enough to provide a tangible idea.

At a sushi bar. There is a circle of little boats running in a carousel-like arrangement on the back wall in a circular manner, each one visibly containing several pieces of sushi. There is no waiting staff to be seen, but the trail goes in a circle and never stops. There is a sign on the wall: “All you can eat - 15:00 to 18:00”. A wall clock on left wall is showing 1 minute before three o'clock. On the opposite site, there is a door. In the center of the stage there is a desk, around it 7 chairs, facing the audience. On the desk there is a stack of 6 dishes.

Nothing happens for a minute.

As the wall clock turns to three o'clock:

The door squeaks and opens. Enter MR. FRATELLI through the door. He is a nervous man dressed in an impeccable pinstripe suit and a pink fedora. In his hand is a suitcase. He dusts off invisible specks of dust off his suit as he closes the door. He proceeds to the desk, sits down at the chair facing the door, and gets several documents out of the suitcase.

Nothing happens for a while. FRATELLI nervously gets out a watch on a chain out of his pocket, double-checks it with the wall clock, stands up, goes to open the door (the door squeaks), puts head through the door opening and looks outside. He closes the door (the door squeaks) and sits down at the desk again.

Silence. Then:

FRATELLI: They should be here by now. (Pause). It said 3 o'clock in the invitation. (Stands up, paces around nervously). Maybe the wall clock is wrong. (Drags a chair to under the wall clock, attempts to reach it standing on the chair. The clock is too high. He drags the chair back and sits down). Maybe there was an accident on the way. Like…. like. Huhm. (Tries to think). A tire blew on the way. (Sighs, props head down on the table so he cannot see the entrance).

The door squeaks. Enter CHANDRA. CHANDRA is a tall person of indeterminate gender. They wear a black turtleneck, round glasses and a beret. Their pace is brisk, but not hurried. They sit down at the chair opposite to FRATELLI, with their back to the door.

CHANDRA: Good day, Mr. Fratelli. FRATELLI (taken by surprise): Chandra! Am I glad you are here!

CHANDRA nods. Silence.

FRATELLI: Would you care for some sushi? CHANDRA: No. Thank you, Mr. Fratelli. FRATELLI: Well. (Pause.) I sure would. (Pause.) I shall go and get some. (Pause).

FRATELLI proceeds to the back of the stage and starts to load up a dish with sushi from the running trail.

Meanwhile, the door squeaks, to which CHANDRA does not react. Enter two women in (obviously fake) police uniforms, holding hands. They are BATHSHEBA and ANGELIQUE. Both are in their late thirties. BATHSHEBA has short colored hair and several piercings and tattoos, whereas ANGELIQUE has long blonde hair and wears a lot of makeup.

ANGELIQUE: (looks around, loudly): Well, that is quite an appropriate location. Good morning everyone!

CHANDRA (turns around): It is hardly morning. Good day, ladies.

BATHSHEBA greets them with a handshake. ANGELIQUE extends her hand for a kiss on the hand, which CHANDRA performs after a moment of hesitation. BATHSHEBA and ANGELIQUE sit down at two middle chairs. Silence.

ANGELIQUE (to BATHSHEBA): Is the waiter not coming?

BATHSHEBA: I wouldn’t know either, would I, dear.

CHANDRA: I believe you are supposed to help yourselves.

ANGELIQUE and BATHSHEBA: Extraordinary!

They hurry to the back and begin to load up their respective dishes. On the other side of the stage, FRATELLI returns with a full dish of sushi.

FRATELLI: I heard voices.

CHANDRA: Madame Angelique and Madame Bathsheba have arrived.

FRATELLI: Excellent! Where are they?

CHANDRA: I believe they are getting food.

FRATELLI: Ah. Hm. How impolite. (Pause.) To be this late, I mean.

When CHANDRA does not react, FRATELLI props his dish onto the table and begins to eat the sushi with a fork.

The door squeaks. Enter BARON OF STACHELAU AN DER OLPE with his spouse, BARONESS MARIA OF SAXONY AND OLPE. The BARONESS is in riding gear, including a rather large riding crop, whereas the BARON is dressed in a beige suit and is fiddling with his car keys all the time.

BARON: Well, what an excellent day for registering a citizens’ association! (Looks around critically.) Although the location is a tad inappropriate, of course. Nevermind!

BARONESS: Would you get me some food, dear.

BARON: Of course, dear.

The BARON hurries to the back, while the BARONESS sits down and slams her riding crop on the table, startling FRATELLI.

BARONESS: Good day, gentlemen.

CHANDRA bows their head slightly, while FRATELLI stutters something unintelligble. BATHSHEBA BARON and ANGELIQUE return to the table with food. BATHSHEBA gives the BARONESS a curt nod, whereas ANGELIQUE goes for the triple cheek kiss.

BATHSHEBA: Looks like Big G is running late.

BARONESS: Well, then we shall begin without him.

BARON: Yes dear.

FRATELLI: I agree. (emphatically) It did say 3pm on the invitation.

The next thing is that our western society has a very clear picture of how you have to appear and behave to be a Real Adult. To the surprise of absolutely no one, this picture contains a lot of aspects that keep you from being happy. Let’s face it - if you want to be a sophisticated adult, you have to be serious, a little brooding, have a sarcastic sense of humor and be hard to impress. Also, you have to be able to find negative points of criticism in everything. If you can’t find them, you’re obviously not educated and critical enough.

When I was a teenager, I didn’t do any of these. Well, I tried to be broody and sarcastic several times, and I have to admit, I DO have dry, dark sense of humor, but all the rest of these traits I adopted to be more serious and more adult. But now, that I try to let go of them little by little, I realize: They do make me unhappy, because that’s not who I am, and yes, suppressing any reflex to laugh and smile, just because you want to be sophisticated makes you unhappy. I’m sure kids don’t do that, but adult you doesn’t have to do that either.

With all these things considered, I think a majority of kids has more careless teenage years than the average tumblr user. Tumblr is practically made to collect social misfits, oppressed/ridiculed minorities and all kinds of people who don’t do too well IRL. So while for the average person, teenage years might have been not much better or worse than their adult and later senior life (but rose tinted by nostalgia), I think for a lot of us here the self agency to pick our social bubble more carefully and our ability to cut off ties to dysfunctional families or “friends” we made only because schools are small means that our future years have high potential to be so much better than our teenage years.

My “future” that is happening right now, definitely is. I have fond memories of many events in my high school years, but right now I’m learning how to take care of myself, how to be happy and how to live among people I actually want to be with.

No. Just no. Ok?

So I used to make this joke all the time. Now I have chronic tinnitus. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s nerve damage in your ears which often comes as a result of being constantly exposed to very loud noise for a long period of time. The nerve damage results in a constant ringing/buzzing in your ears. So far there’s no cure. The severity of it varies, and I’m lucky to have a mild case, which I can barely hear during the day and is easy to block out at night. That said, loads of people with tinnitus aren’t so lucky. Severe tinnitus can’t be blocked out. Those who suffer from it also suffer from severe loss of sleep, depression, anxiety…. the list goes on. Tinnitus also comes with a degree of hearing loss in most cases, making it even harder to ignore. In fact, some people with severe tinnitus kill themselves just to make the ringing stop. Tinnitus can be so severe that it drives a person to suicide. Chronic tinnitus used to mostly be prevalent in older people who worked for years with loud machinery etc, but all of a sudden it’s becoming more common in our generation. Why? Because of people, like me, who listened to their music too goddamn loudly through their headphones.

I don’t know how to speak to straight women. But! I do have something important to tell you guys. You guys have been accepting too little for too long. You’ve set the bar in your relationships too low. How would I know that? Why would I know that? The girl I’m dating now, until now, has exclusively dated men. It is sooo easy to impress her. Oh my God, guys. It’s ridiculous. 

we’ve been given a letter to vacate pq my son’s service dog

discovered i have an unidentifiable mass outside my uterus which is causing me extreme pain

my son’s bike was stolen

my phone’s touch screen is now just doing whatever it wants and is p much unusable

my older son’s phone was stolen

The libraries in my city host ‘English as a Secondary Language’ classes, cooking classes, classes on how to use that 3D printer, local history classes, responsible naturalistic gardening classes, beekeeping classes, and all sorts of other fun topics. Plus the plethora of clubs that use the library conference rooms as their meeting place. 

All for free.