Fires are sad

There was just a big fire in an apartment building across the street from me. Watching people being evacuated has me hung up on the question of what I would save if I were escaping a fire. I saw people climbing down the ladders with all sorts of things... laptop cases, pets, blankets... considering how bad the smoke was, it's a wonder people had time to grab anything at all. And not everyone was that lucky - one of the older tenants couldn't make it out on her own and tragically passed away before the rescue team could find her. People like to talk about grabbing photo albums, etc., but really? When there's smoke and you can hardly breathe, are you thinking about your baby photos or are you thinking about getting the hell out of there before you die? If I still had my cat, I think she'd be the only thing I would even have the impulse to save. Maybe I'd have time to throw my purse over my shoulder. A lot of people today didn't even have the time to grab a coat, and it's barely over 40 degrees. I think in a genuine life or death situation you have to sacrifice the romanticized concept of rapidly evaluating what material things are most important to you. You just run. That said, it was pretty tragic walking by after the fire had been put out and seeing the piles of wet, charred belongings lying in the street and on the sidewalk. There was a Hello Kitty backpack in the mess and seeing that made me tear up. I had to remind myself that whatever kid that belonged to had made it out alive, and that is really the most important thing.

Feminist Rant

I just finished watching Funny Face for the millionth time, and it is finally starting to bother me. It's a seriously tragic movie - talk about setting back the women's movement! Moral of the story is: so long as a girl sacrifices any intellectual pursuit and willingly follows a persuasive and powerful man, she'll be able to find happiness. Duhhhh. Oh, and all intellectuals are suspect and/or borderline retarded, so don't listen to anything they might have to say. I honestly wonder how it's possible that Audrey Hepburn was willing to take a role in which she fulfilled her destiny by giving up her lifelong fascination with philosophy to pose in front of a man's camera in fancy clothes. When she cries during the wedding dress photo shoot because, as she says, "it's not really the happiest day of my life," you know she's gone round the bend. The happiest day of your life was supposed to be the day you discussed "empathicalism" with a world-famous philosophy professor, ya dumb ho, not your wedding day! But of course, that world famous philosophy professor turns out to be a lecherous creep, so scratch that. You didn't need those books anyway! Bah!


And barring all of that, it's a lovely film and I watch it all the time. The end.

I can haz lolspeak?

I was unaware until tonight that lolspeak is now an official language. Or at least, official enough for Flickr. So, every time you log into Flickr, they teach you how to say hello in a different language. For example, "Hola, ----! Now you know how to greet people in Spanish!" But tonight I logged in and saw:

O HAI Jaymar!!

Now you know how to greet people in Lolspeak!

Wow. Just wow.

It's Christmastime (and bedtime!)

I am a little drunk. We just sang 'O Come All Ye Faithful' (as Adestes Fidelis in the original Latin, courtesy of one Peter Noble) and 'O Holy Night' back-to-back at karaoke. It's almost like I've found Christ. Ashley and I fell down on the stairs and my knee is bleeding through my tights. Also, my elbow hurts a lot. It would be pretty cool if Brian would hurry up and get back to San Francisco. How did I end up in a cab? I love you all (probably).