Conversations - 6th May 2010

"The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary." - Dave Kellett

***

PPBI: i realize the good thing about having female doc
cos of the acne on my back i cant really wear backless clothes

when i told my usual GP that
he said never mind don't wear, and cited some forum letter

a parent wrote in to complain about young people's skimpy dressing
nowadays

but my female doc at uni clinic was like
OF COURSE IT'S IMPORTANT
YOU'RE A GIRL IT'S IMPORTANT

:D so happy


MFM: ah, I see you got hit with the 'why you complain [about something Singaporean] so much' stick

Me: [the one who hit me with it]'s a civil servant haha

MFM: had it with non-civil servants as well

Me: singapore inculcates learned helplessness

MFM: that's fine if they keep it to themselves, but then they get all judgmental on people who aren't helpless

Me: the crabs in bucket syndrome?

MFM: hmm, first I've seen that phrase. maybe.


Someone i love your friend [Frigid Girl]
so brutal

Me: hahahahaha
if she were a guy she'd get hit harder [by Someone else]
it's called female privilege

she was rushing for something and this ah lian refused to budge
she squeezed past and the ah lian cursed her
so she struck the ah lian, who fell to the ground
if a guy had done that, he'd be in jail

Someone well
[Someone else] doesn't consider himself a sexist
so i doubt there'd be differential treatment if she were a guy ;)
if he practises what he preaches, that is

your friend rocks

Me: he doesn't consider himself one but I'm quite sure there'd
be differential treatment
it'd be ascribed to "power relations" or some nonsense like that

Someone he's idealistic
maybe a bit too idealistic
and he has ideals that favour the groups that he's part of
but i guess you can say that of most people

Me: see. most people are open about it
but when you espouse the ideology of fairness, it behooves you to be fair
rather than come up with some cock and bull story which ultimately boils down to

white people are evil
men are evil
straight people are evil

Someone that's a trait i've noticed among many Literature students

Me: that's because modern literature is not about exploring the meaning of texts, but subverting them to push a radical progressive agenda

Someone it's just more romantic and makes for better writing when you're rebelling poetically against a larger enemy

Me: "Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.

Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?"

from there it is an easy confusion to always take the side of the less powered

oh I know why I didn't quote the egg article [on my blog]
cos it's rubbish

Someone LOL
that's what a lot of people say about Haruki Murakami
he's the kind of writer you either love or hate

Me: hah

oh yeah
I am reminded. this journo wrote a study of john roberts
the chief justice

one of his criticisms was that in every case where the powerful have been pitted against the powerless, he has found for the powerful
as if that were necessarily a bad thing
but you should criticise a judge on the grounds that he makes bad law
not that he doesn't side with the powerless


Frigid Girl: i like telling stories to girls, so cute
they all scream at the correct places
for dramatic effect
hahaha


Someone: hmmm
do u ve some articles on subtle flirting etc etc
and not some outright asking the guy for his number etc type?

Me: o_0

Someone: lol
u quote an insane number of articles on such subjects!
ah okok..nvm

Me: I dont quote articles on subtle flirting

Someone: orh ok


MFTTW: are you having a hissy fit over OJ
please tell me you aren't

it's OJ LAHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh
at least it's made from ORANGES
and not oleng-es and palm oil.

...

shit ok now you just made me spend 10 minutes of my life analysing citrus production statistics argh.


Someone: do you think that generally women are less logical than men

Me: yes

Someone: actually i agree with that too
or at least findings in neuroscience tend to support that

Me: ooh show me show me

Someone: it was a hand-out given by my *** professor last semester
so i don't really remember the source

and she's female

Me: what class was this

Someone: Gender, Race and Science

Me: oh that
hahahaha

Someone: nope, she just gave hand-outs mostly

i just remember the article says something like males exercise the left side of their brains (in charge of logical thinking and rational reasoning) more whereas females are better at switching between both sides

males predominantly carry out tasks using the left hemisphere apparently
accounting for why they're better at logic

Me: hurr hurr
that doesn't sound very convincing, evento me ;)

Someone: well you shouldn't say "even" to you,
since you hold *evidence* presented to you to very high standards in the first place

Me: hee hee
the feminists would say that etc etc

anyway it's incontrovertible that we are easier on views we are sympathetic to than those who oppose

even I am human
hurr hurr

Someone: yup

you're less human than a lot of other humans i know though
take it as a compliment and not as an insult


Someone else: i know already
how to make the gahmen happy

fuck the girls in the office. kill 2 birds with 1 stone. u stay back, do work and u contribute to population growth.


Someone: I think the same cues that lead people to think he's gay are the same ones that lead people to think you're gay, so prob not v reliable


PPBI: time to take my drug cocktail!
so exciting

Me: you're deprived

PPBI: have you ever gotten FIVE medicines before

Me: no
what's wrong with you ah

PPBI: being female

Me: thanks