The Grey Ladies

Lemme have a quick look:

“I’m one of the dime a dozen figure skaters certified by the JSF”

Dime a dozen. Right, kiddo. When you have groupies who are the rising stars like Minami-kun, who recognise good skating because they’re trained to, I suspect you may be understating how good you are. When your home town plasters your imagery all over the place because you are their famous skater, you’re more than a dime a dozen.

Also, let us take a moment to remember that he made it as far as the Grand Prix final. We learn in later episodes how many competitions you have to win to get through to the Grand Prix Final. He won. He won lots. He did *well* right up until the Grand Prix. The commentater even comments that he wasn’t himself at this one significant event.

This anxiety-ridden little moppet even explains why: the death of a beloved family pet and grief threw him off, and I suspect his natural anxiety was the nail in the confidence coffin. But he still blames himself, despite a run of horrible circumstances, grief, isolation and the insane amount of pressure he was putting on himself to get his ‘big day’ right.

“I was an idiot to think I could finally meet my idol on the same playing field…”

Maybe Sochi wasn’t a level playing field, but it certainly wasn’t because of the skating. It was because of everything else crashing in on him at the same time, which meant his skating suffered. Then it became a domino effect of depression and anxiety and he lost again and again.

We know this because when he was trying to get his groove back, he took Viktor’s gold-medal winning routine and performs it to perfection. Lemme repeat that: a gold-medal winning routine and performs it to perfection. Which he is doing while not in peak condition and while significantly heavier than he had been during the competitions.

Yuuri is a badass-skater, but because of his spiral of depression and anxiety before the start of the series, his narration about himself and his career naturally skews to the negative. And we believed him. We fell for it, because he believed it himself.

A “Men’s Rights Activists” website has urged men to boycott the release ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ for being “a feminist piece of propaganda posing as a guy flick”.

Their problem with the film, which MRA blog Return of The Kings admits it hasn’t actually seen yet, is that Charlize Theron’s character Furiosa is the star of the film, not Tom Hardy’s Max.

- Tom Hardy: I’d Have Sold My Mum For Crack - Charlize Theron: Not Enough Women In Apocalyptic Films

“This is the vehicle by which they are guaranteed to force a lecture on feminism down your throat,” the site whines.

“This is the Trojan Horse feminists and Hollywood leftists will use to (vainly) insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things, including physique, strength, and logic. And this is the subterfuge they will use to blur the lines between masculinity and femininity, further ruining women for men, and men for women.”

The site jumped to this conclusion based on the film’s trailer which they say show Charlize Theron’s character “barking orders” at Mad Max, to which they exclaim: “Nobody barks orders to Mad Max”.

They’re also up in arms over the involvement of ‘Vagina Monologues’ author Eve Ensler who acted as a consultant on the movie.

They went on to urge all men around the world to avoid the movie because: “if they sheepishly attend and ‘Fury Road’ is a blockbuster, then you, me, and all the other men (and real women) in the world will never be able to see a real action movie ever again that doesn’t contain some damn political lecture or moray about feminism, SJW-ing, and socialism.”

As geek blog The Mary Sue points out, opposition for the film from the MRA site, actually shines a light on the problem of sexism in Hollywood movies.

“By admitting they’re threatened by Charlize Theron… Clarey and his commenters are also agreeing that the media we consume and the stories we tell are hugely important. Thanks for the movie recommendations, bros.”

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is coming to cinemas on 14 May.

- The Office Spin Off Movie Confirmed - Jem and The Holograms Movie Trailer - 10 Most Shocking Cannes Moments

What?

What just happened?

Did I just…DID I JUST?!

Nope.

No. No. No I did not.

I did not do that. There’s no way I did that.

…But I did.

Holy crap I just did that.

Why did I just do that?

Okay, you KNOW why you did that. But, really though, WHY DID I HAVE TO DO THAT?

But also…

It was bloody fantastic.

No, Lily! No it was not.

Those thoughts are not allowed.

…But it was.

It really was.

Oh my God it was.

Wow.

Stop!

You don’t have any time for that, Lily!

Okay.  

Okay, this isn’t a big deal. This is totally fine.

We kissed, so what? It’s not as if this has to change anything.  We just kissed.

Okay, fine! You kissed him!

Oh sodding hell, you snogged James Potter!

OF COURSE THIS CHANGES THINGS LILY!

Holy hell, I snogged James Potter.

…

And he kissed me back.

Quite a lot, really.

He’s the one who pushed me against the wall…

Well, no.

I’m the one who pushed him against the wall.

Jesus Christ. I pushed James Potter against a wall and snogged him.

Alright Lily, you need calm down. Just think about this rationally, go through step by step.

One: James and I were working in the library on our potions assignment.

Two: We decided to go down to the kitchens for a milkshake.

Three: I haven’t gotten a milkshake.

Shoot, I really want a milkshake.

Okay, okay.

Four: We were talking about Quidditch.

Five: He rolled up his sleeves.

Five: He rolled up his sleeves.

Five: HE ROLLED UP HIS SLEEVES WHAT ELSE WAS I TO DO

Six: I pushed him against the wall and snogged him.

Seven: He snogged remarkably well.

…

Damn, Potter really knew what he was doing.

…

Eight: I realized what I just did.

Nine: He smirked.

Nine: He smirked.

Nine: HE BLOODY SMIRKED I HAD NO CHOICE.

Ten: I snogged James Potter, again.

Eleven: He snogged remarkably well, again.

Twelve: I pushed myself away from him and went to the other side of the corridor.

Thirteen: He said, and I quote, “I’ll give you a second.”

Fourteen: I said, and I quote, “It’ll be more than that, Potter.”

Fifteen: Here we are.

Lily, he is sitting on the floor now.

You have literally been pacing for five minutes.

Get it together.

“Are you alright, Evans?”

Shit. Not this again.

“Don’t call me that.”

Seriously, James. Do not say it again, please.

“What are you talking about Ev-”

“Stop!”

How am I supposed to figure out what to do when he calls me by my surname? It’s physically impossible!

“Just…just hush.”

Okay, Lily. What do you want?

Do you want to never talk about this again?

Do you want to deal with it and move on?

…

Do you want to date Potter?

Shit.

Why do I have to fancy him? It was so much easier before!

Holy crap, I want to date Potter.

When did this happen?

…

Woah, it’s been a while.

HOW DID I NOT REALIZE THIS

It’s so obvious! I always sit next to him. I laugh at his jokes, both good and bad. I pick fights just to talk to him. I take strolls right when his Quidditch practice gets out. I DON’T HATE IT when he runs his hands though his hair.

I like it.

I like it a lot.

I like him a lot.

“What do you want?”

No, Lily! That was so stupid! Why did I ask him that? What if he says he wants to be friends? You just realized you fancy him! Let that sink in first!

He probably wants to just be friends. I bet James regrets the whole thing.

“You.”

Oh wow.

Good answer.

Well played, sir. Well player.

Average human: 0 James Potter: 1

“What do you want, Lily?”

I want James Potter.

How I feel has nothing to do with it. I immediately sent this message to the NZ police and directly to the FBI and directly to the victims’ assistance counsel who has been keeping me up to date on everything, informing them that you, my stalker, have now broken the terms of your arrest.

The terms, as a refresher, were:

No using the Internet

No using post

No contacting Melissa Anelli or any of her family and friends

No contacting anyone in North America. 

No one but my stalker would have had any information about the severity or lack thereof of her sentence. And after 6.5 years I can spot a sentence she has written from a mile away without reading glasses. I am publishing this so that it is well known that she has broken the terms of her bail. Because the last time I wasn’t silent about one of her messages, it led to her arrest. I don’t want this break of her bail conditions - while awaiting sentencing no less! - to go unnoted. 

The Melissa of a year ago would not have published this. But I am so done. I have done everything everyone has asked. I have written the letters to the judges going over the whole thing in excruciating and personally painful detail. I have saved evidence with the organization of a librarian. I have answered every question and waited through every deferment and delay, and I am done just doing what is usually done in these instances. This is endless, and it is harmful, and it must stop, and “getting off lightly” would be a complete travesty. As is the fact that no one is monitoring her well enough to see how she is breaking the terms of her bail, and that no one is convinced she should be incarcerated in some fashion.

You know what I’m not done with, and can’t just decide to be done with? Being a victim. That is up to the people who work for the legal system of New Zealand. My being a victim. Up to them. How I deal with being a victim? Up to me. Whether I am continually victimized? Them.

And maybe making this public will make me less sympathetic to some judge down there and that will lessen her sentence for some completely non-sensical reason, I don’t know. But I am so beyond done with it being everyone else's call. 

This is life with a serious stalker. Everyone who is worried about harassment on the Internet needs to see and know and understand this. This goes beyond getting hordes of hateful or threatening YouTube comments: this is about when someone gets in. We are talking about 6.5 years of constant threats and abuse that go offline and into the physical realm, stalking and harassment that touch everyone I know, that has not yet been deterred by TWO ARRESTS and the threat of jail. If you aren’t sure what this post is about, read this for a reminder.

Excuse me. I must now go and undo all of the small victories from the past few months, starting with the allowing of asks.

This is the reality of online stalking.