Letter to MP Stephen Woodworth

Dear Stephen Woodworth (and the agreeing members of Parliament);

I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your desires to reopen the abortion debate in Canada. Doing so will not only infringe on the rights of your female citizens, specifically those who are pregnant or will become pregnant, it will pose a severe breach of privacy that many women deserve in this nation.

As much as I dislike bringing up this argument, it is important enough to state, and more valid than many moral claims made in favour of keeping the government out of the life and choices of a pregnant woman. Any man wishing to pass legislation that explicitly, morally and politically targets women is absurd. There is no male equivalent to abortion, nor will there likely ever be despite scientific breakthroughs. Until such a time, if there is one, men [in politics] should steer clear from any moral legislative lobbies that affect only women. It is unfair, and quite possibly false representation.

Should this bill be brought to the House of Parliament, I as a Canadian Citizen demand that it be put to the electorate to decide. Such legislation, which would affect the electorate (and possibly devastate a part of it), should be placed at the hands of the people it would affect; such is the purpose of Democracy.

This issue is sensitive enough to people; and it is absolutely unnecessary to pass a legislature on the issue, because it will not provide enough benefit to Canadian society as a whole. Canadian women are well aware of how to morally accomodate for any pregnancies they experience in their lifetime, and do not need outside pressure from a government that does not know them as people, nor likely ever will.

Please adhere to Prime Minister Harper's wishes, and leave the issue alone. It has not harmed society as a whole, nor has there been evidence published to illustrate that it has.

Sincerely,

Sabrina Belfast

Sod this, I'm fixing.

I am now officially determined to stop hating myself.

It's a long time coming, but to be honest, I'm not going to throw myself into that same pit of despair that the media, my social fears, and those mean bullies in primary school put me through day in and day out, just because I'm not a movie star.

Tim tells me I'm beautiful on a constant basis. Why can't I believe him? What is making his words just sound so incredibly weird that I can't process them as complete truth?

It's gotten better over the years with him, but I want it to get even more better. (Grammar, it fails me now.) I am determined to take my every little 'flaw' and turn it into something consciously, and unconsciously, part of my charming and wonderful self that other people see me as.

It's obviously made worse at the moment by Tim being in Germany. Much, much worse. But, what can I do about it other than continue waiting the 32 remaining days for him to come home? I'm determined to figure out how. So far, visiting people and playing tetris with the apartment has helped but when I do end up solitary and stationary again because of fatigue or whatever else, the thoughts come back. Not even My Little Pony helps with the distraction sometimes.

I hate my nose.
I want a flat stomach.
I think my eyes make me look old and tired.
Stretch marks riddle my legs.
My skin is prone to random (thankfully small) breakouts.

...And it's amazing, that's all I can think of right now. In terms of the good stuff:

Tim comes home on August 17th. Just JUUUST over a month left.
I have two adorable little hamsters, one of which is an immigrant.
The apartment is starting to look clean, and I have a system for getting rid of the remaining bins and bits and bobs that I can't figure out what to do with until August 17th.
My bff Tammie lets me raid her house on a regular basis just for shits and giggles.
I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff too.

In any event, I want this to be a testament to my determination to stop hating myself, and if I get bad, just throw this blog entry back at my face and shove the positive reinforcement down my head. I'mma need help still :)

Peace, Love and MarioKart
~Dexie

Boredom, and Insomnia

So, I can't sleep. What do I do when I can't sleep? I blog! Durh.

I'm putting together a BUNCH of projects, and I might as well share them a bit. Or at least, remind myself of them so that I stop forgetting.

First and foremost, I have a determined goal to be an independently published author by New Year's. Project is going well, got some good stuff going for me, just need to flesh out the ideas. Might do that later tonight.

In the meantime, I am throwing a performance art project together, in an attempt to help independently boost the self-esteem of girls who don't look Barbie beautiful. Just gotta...well, put shit together lol.

Back in a bit, the hamster apparently needs attention.

Peace, Love and MarioKart.

~Dexie

An Angry Letter to Elections Canada

To whom it may concern, regarding the last election on May 2nd.

I am writing this letter to you, and to the country at large, to voice my disappointment at not being able to cast my ballot in the federal election that just passed, despite my efforts to do so.

I am currently studying abroad in the United Kingdom, and when I heard from home about the federal election to be held in May, I specifically requested information on how I could still take part in the voting process, even though I'm not at home.

After receiving said information, I set out to complete the application process and follow all deadlines accordingly; I sent out my application, as well as photocopies of the required documents, on the 10th of April, 2011, 16 days before the deadline of April 26th. I sent the parcel via First Class Royal Mail, ensuring it would be delivered to your offices at high speed.

I have more than enough reason to believe that if there was a problem on the side of the Royal Mail, my parcel would have returned to my flat with some kind of indication as to why.

As such, I had checked my post every possible day afterward, to find the voting kit I had sent for, or even a letter telling me that I wasn't able to vote for whatever reason. I found nothing. I had taken steps to provide more than enough time to receive my ballot and send it back, and I received nothing.

I feel let down. I am deeply interested in being a contributing member of Canadian society, no matter where in the world I am. It doesn't matter to me that my vote may or may not have made a difference to the election's results. What matters to me is the fact that as a young [and abroad] voter, which is very rare in the current state of things, I feel either disregarded or not taken seriously.

What I do not understand is why voting ballots, especially those sent overseas, are not taken care of with first class post or another high-priority equivalent. The post system takes a long time, and because there was no way to vote online (which would have been much faster), these things probably should have been considered when setting deadlines.

Next time an election is held, I sincerely hope that those who request a ballot from outside of Canada do receive one. And if they do not, I hope they voice this fact.

Sincerely,

Sabrina Elizabeth Belfast.

On the PSN Shutdown, April 2011

So where I work, I've been seeing a lot of complaints, requests, and curiosity about:

What happened to the PlayStation Network
Who compromised it
When it's coming back
And, my absolute favourite:

What will they get for this COLLOSSAL inconvenience.

I work for Ask.com, as a community moderator in their open beta community project. If you're not sure about what it is, you can find it here. It's a wonderful little place, and I absolutely adore being there.

However, the thing that has been pissing me off super royally is the fact that people are (very loudly) running around the website saying 'I'm so sick of this, why can't they just fix the damn problem?' or 'What are we going to get for this?'

There are two inherent problems with these statements:

1 - They're making the faulty assumption that because the internet can be fast, that people who provide services here should be faster.
2 - That when they finally fix the problem, they deserve something for their lack-of-access troubles.

Here's a thought, you sillies; Instead of demanding a rush patch, where there are more holes in the service than there were before the problem happened, exercise this little known thing called patience and wait for the workers at Sony to a) fix the problem at hand, so your IDENTITY is safe from these people until they get more adventurous, and b) make the system better so that it won't happen for a long, long time.

You should not be concerned over whether or not you can access the network and buy games. If you gave a shit about your security, you'd be cancelling or requesting new credit cards, changing your e-mail passwords, and checking your mail for any fraudulent attempts at getting your identity from you.

LIKE SONY HAS SAID IN THEIR PRESS RELEASE:

Lookie, the one posted in this article RIGHT HERE.

You should also have found one from them, sent straight to you, in your e-mail inbox.

They both say the same thing:

They're working on fixing the problem.
They're concerned more about you protecting yourself than letting you play games.
They don't want this to happen again.

So please, please please please, shut the fuck up and wait a while. Rome was not built in a day, and your precious internet gaming will be back, hopefully better than ever.

Peace, Love, MarioKart.
~Dexie

Inspiration comes from odd places

Y'know, I think I'm going to update this thing a bit more often. I don't know why, but for some reason reading another person's blog post (or lately, following people on Twitter) has been leading to me having much more inspiration to actually reach out on the webernets.

I feel like I've become a member of a bigger community.

Thank you, Fabulous Lorraine :3

Boredom and the Internet = This

Stranger: suck my footlon

Stranger: footlong

You: Sorry, your vocabulary's too short.

Stranger: you should be nicer im a cop and im tracking this

You: What does me saying you have a terrible vocabulary have to do with you possibly being a police officer?

Stranger: i can put you in jail ill let you off this time but next time im just saying

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

***

Stranger: hi, are you female with skype ?
You: Why yes, I am.
Why?

Stranger: bad connection

Stranger: you can add me

You: Your connection seems fine right now.

You: Skype won't make it any better.

Your conversational partner has disconnected.

More to come later.