Things of late
*Christmas was rather lovely and low-key. Very grateful for lovely presents and yummy food. Body Shop Vineyard Peach shower scrub and Lindt dark chocolates might just be the most heavenly things in existence.
*New Year's Eve was almost as lovely and even lower-key. I'm far too old now to pretend to give a shit about how NYE is supposed to be the biggest party EVAH. I'm all for celebrating and for treating every day as though it's something to celebrate, but that's kind of the thing - if you're not feeling it on December 31st, throw a freaking party on January 8th if you want, because that's a day too. New Year's Eve might mean noisy drunk neighbours and a new calendar on your wall in the morning, but if you feel like staying in and watching Oz, then by Jove, you should do just that. And if people tell you you're missing out on the fun? Join them in 364 days time. That's the thing about NYE - there's one every year, you see. I think that might even be sort of the point.
*Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. That was horrendous. There was the usual crapola online - "only a mother can truly understand the horror of what happened to those 20 little angels today". Um, no. Lots of people who have no kids have plenty of kindness, empathy, compassion, and love. Parents do not own what happened that day. Mothers do not own tragedy. And there were 26 people who lost their lives, and one the day before. Slain adults are not less tragic, and that includes the gunman's mother.
*Also? The gun control thing. I can't remember which badass celebrity it was, but someone famous was being quoted on facebook saying how it's not gun control that is the issue here, it's the media for glorifying the sick bastard who did it. I agree and I don't. I mean, the media has fucked up a lot of things in a lot of ways. But you can't argue that if the USA took big-ass guns away from violent, screwy people, this shit would happen less. It happens less here in Australia, and that's because Julia Gillard won't let us have big-ass guns. I know you guys have your amendments and whatnot, and I totally get that, but for serious here - those things were written a while back. Like, as in, before the biggest and scariest of said guns were invented. Maybe we edit just slightly, y/y? And just as a thing, we can't all sort of just stop watching the news. I agree that most of the mainstream media tends to sensationalise things like this, and I HATE that I can't remember the names of the victims and yet I know the name of the gunman ... but I can't just not know what happened.
*Mental health. Look, it's definitely part of the problem, and a significant part at that. Should the gunman's mother have gotten him some help when she realised he was "strange"? Yes, of course - but it's a little late to lay the blame on her now. More needs to be taught, the stigma needs to be erased, and funds need to be allocated so we can stop shit like this from going down again. If people are sick, we need to try to cure them. But also, we need to not give them guns. Let's not forget the not-giving-them-guns part.
*That lovely teacher, OMG. I'm not a kid person at all, but that interview where she described telling the students how much she loved them brought more than one tear to my eye. What an amazing, incredible, beautiful, generous-hearted woman. I can't imagine a better person for those kids to have been with at that moment. She said she wasn't sure if it was appropriate for her to say it and that she's sorry if it wasn't - but if I were a parent of one of those kids, or if I were one of those kids, I'd be grateful to her forever just for being her. She's a hero, pure and simple.
*Bushfires here in Australia. It happens every year because it's hotter than the hinges of hell down here, and because there's lots of bushland, dry grass, and assholes with matches - but this year summer has arrived later and is burning hotter, and there's a good chance that a lot of people are quite fucked as a result. If anyone out there can do things, donate things, or help with things, call the Red Cross or Salvation Army in Australia and see what they need.
*Work is rather lovely at the moment. I'm in a new government department and frequently see the names of my colleagues and myself in the paper because we're actually making a goddamn difference. It's unspeakably wondrous to be paid for something like that. And also to be working with a Scottish man who has the sexiest accent imaginable, and to have a pet lorikeet in the office.
*My darling hearted Callie the collie was put to sleep following a nasty bout of something spinal and degenerative. She was a dear old thing, and letting her suffer was just not something we could handle, so we made the difficult decision and cried a lot, but now she's an angel chasing starlings and probably barking at cherubs for plucking their harps too loudly.
*The ex-friend was indeed fired from her most recent job for allegedly doing something very, very illegal which I can't discuss in any great detail until/in case it goes to trial. I heard from her brother that she's trying to get work cleaning houses, but is having no luck. I don't want to be smug, but I'm high-fiving karma pretty damn hard right now.
*Television. Criminal Minds needs to come back, I'm craving Derek Morgan quite severely at the moment, and after last night he can join Michaela Conlin and The Famous Boy (and some real-life people who can remain nameless so as to avoid me weirding myself out) on the list of People Patch Has Had Sex Dreams About. Miranda is wonderful and hilarious, NCIS makes me wish Gibbs was a real person, and HIMYM managed to make me squee and hope Barney and Robin really can make it work. Yeah. I know. And True Blood - I miss the show, but not the comms. I think next season I really might just ignore the LJ communities altogether, because comment wars and superfans are just tedious.
*Internet. Release me from your evil clutches, black hole of doom known as Cracked.com. You thieve time.
*Shopping. Unhand me, malevolent wenches of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, as you shall possess my income no longer! Unless, you know, the next lot of new release scents are AWESOME.
*It is my belief that all girls need an adorable gay friend. I have one and don't know how I managed to survive the first couple of decades of my life without him. There should be a market where you can go to get one, if only for the fact that the incredibly buff gym-junkie types amongst them are quite lovely to perve on shamelessly.
*Go and watch "Les Miserables" immediately. Go on, go. Then when you get back, rent Taken 2, Madagascar 3, and book advance screening tickets for Life Of Pi. Also, rewatch The Secret Garden, because you haven't seen it in ages.
*Do not endeavour to make Miss Spink from "Coraline" your role model. That would be a silly thing to do, even if you happen to be Patch.
*Go to India, ride buses, and don't dare be afraid - otherwise those bastards win.
*It's just occurred to me that my new episode of Big Bang Theory should have finished streaming by now and there is a glass of milk in the kitchen with my name on it. Therefore, Patch Out.
PEACE!