Electronic Scribblings

Are you real? [2 of >1]

OK, where was I? Oh yes.

The other night I joined Second Life and realised how many alternate identifies I had, and yet a there were a number of threads. I generally portray myself as female, even in RP games & on-line, where no one can actually see you. I feel comfortable like that. I know a lot of guys who (in RP / Online) portray as female - and for a lot of them (thankfully) its just cause thats [a] fun bor [b] what they want to look at on the computer screen!

But I stick to female. And in Second life have even had a go at looking somewhat like me - I may even post a screen cap of her, one day when the damn camera works (and I can figure out how to do it from the front without looking a total dork)!

So, how do the people I meet there know I am real? Underneath all of the pixels? Its come up in games (MMORPGs) - Bots which do stuff a la the Turing test and fool people into thinking they are human. Reason? to garner *whatever* for the player, sometimes to sell it onwards.

Sigh.

Mostly it goes back to something I have written about before: Masks.

Masks are the identities and labels you wear each and every day - Cat lover/owner, *Job Title*, Collegue, The one with the weird laugh, the blonde, the Wife, Sci-Fi geek, Discworld Fan, and so on.

Aspects of personality ~ In a real sense they are all you in that they come from you, even when you are faking it, it can show, but to fake it well it has to be within you somewhere, some corner of your psyche.

So what do people see when they see me?

Often I think it is worse than it is - especially at work when I am (thankfully) often told how good I am at my job. But I know how bad I really am and think if only I could do it better then...... then I wonder exactly how bad others must be that I appear so good next to them :P

It is now late so I may continue this anon.

Are you real? [1 of more than 1]

Hello, I am Blue-cat - do I exist?

Well, since something is creating this blog - yes. I blog, therefore I am. And you can probably guess a fair amount about me from what I write.

And if you also know me on Live Journal, well, you know more about me!

But I realised on Sunday, after joining Second Life (and thinking about who I wanted to be there), that a very large amount of my life is either imaginary or online and unlinked.

I quite like that - little boxes with aspects of me neatly labelled and with different people seeing each box. Or even a bit like my analogy with Deity the other week - seeing different bits and not knowing the others, not knowing the differences. But not. I am very not divine (except occassionally according to my husband!).

There is this thing - lest call it human. There is a label straight away. How about some others?

You can see the following:Female, White, Blonde (is she ditzy?), Busty, Older but not old.

You might know or guess these: British-Australian, Adopted, Married, Role-player (like D&D not BDSM).

Persona? Variable.

(My lunch time is over and so is this post :P Finish it later)

QotD: The Best Blend

What's your favorite blend or brand of coffee or tea?

Fair Trade logo

Less of a brand and more of an ideology - I only buy Fair Trade Coffee, but choose different styles and strengths as sometimes I like medium Arabica and other times something stronger!

I view coffee as a true luxury, like bananas, and am trying to increase the amount of ethical / fair trade items I buy.

Trivial Pursuit

Which of the following are true and which are false?

 

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button.
3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.
4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.
5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!
6. Only 7 per cent of the population are lefties.
7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.
8. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.
9. The average person over 50 will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.
10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.
11. The average housefly lives for one month.
12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
13. A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.
14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.
15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.
16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.
17. The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.
18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.
19. John Travolta turned down the starring roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Tootsie."
20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State Anthem.
21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.
22. Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same airplane, just in case there is a crash.
23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.
24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are used in vein transplant surgery.
25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7th cousins.
26. If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.

Answers in a comment below

Its not who or what you are but what you do

A comment bastardised from Alan Johnson, UK Education Secretary, who is making a speech later today and is pre-quoted as saying:

"Our family policy must be bias free... it's not who or what the parents are, it's what they do," he will tell a Relate conference.  "Taxation and law doesn't create strong families, it's love and compassion,"

This could apply in so many different situations.

 

Multi-culturalism hot potatoe

BBC Education: Was Muslim guidance reasonable?

Mike Baker, BBC Education correspondent, comments on the new guidelines for schools from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).

The Daily Express (Spit) of course calls it Muslims demand "Taleban-style" conditions in our schools.

But the fear of the 'guidelines' is that the whole, indeed (apparently) sole, point of the guidelines is to tell the schools how to adapt for the students and nothing about what the students will do to adapt to the standard regimen of a British school.

Some requests are reasonable, others would be disruptive to smooth school life & interaction.

• "should accommodate" Muslim girls so they are allowed to wear "a full-length loose school skirt or loose trousers, a long-sleeved shirt and a head scarf". ~ yup. Fine by me. it is noted that the MCB doesn't consider full face veils to be mandatory.
• It argues that all schools, including secondaries, should ideally have separate changing facilities with "individual changing cubicles". ~ This would require partitions in a room or remodelling, much more difficult.
• Sports involving physical contact (basketball, for example) should happen only in single-gender groups. ~ Maybe. But difficult.
• amulets containing Koranic verses "should not be considered as jewellery". ~ Er??? Crosses are jewellery.
  
• Islamic Studies should be offered to all Muslim pupils in RE at Key Stage 4 (GCSE level) ~ looks logical but this is the UK, RE is supposed to be multi-cultural.
  

One problem is how to justify these choices / requirements to non-muslim students. Why they can't play in mixed sex groups, why they have to do something (dance, swim, whatever) that the Muslim student can 'get out of' because of their religion. The howls of 'but it isn't FAaaairrr!' would echo across playgrounds everywhere.

Some of these are reasonable requests - but there needs to be a two way process and there are concerns that it may cause a backlash in the presumptions made.

The Muslim Council of Britain will be launching its information and guidance document for schools entitled 'Towards Greater Understanding- Meeting the Needs of Muslim Pupils in State Schools' on Wednesday 21 February.

Based on best practice, the document gives information and guidance on how schools can respond positively to some commonly raised issues concerning Muslim pupils including halal food, dress code, Ramadan, provision for prayers, collective worship etc.
Press release (info copied here) - pdf linked in the article

Korean anti-semitism

WIESENTHAL CENTER DENOUNCES NAZI-LIKE DEPICTION OF JEWS BY ONE OF KOREA'S MOST PROLIFIC AND POPULAR AUTHORS

What I consider absolutely horrific is that the series in question is a best-selling comic book that is given to school children to teach them about the world ("Far Countries, Neighboring Countries").

The sections will, however, now be deleted with the publishers statment as follows: The book's author, Professor Rhie Won-bok, and its publishing house apologized for the panels and said they were sorry for any hurt they may have caused.

er, why were they created in the first place? The comic panels in question can be seen on the website above. The site is unlikely to set of your 'race hate' work filters as it is a Jewish Human rights organisation but your blood pressure may hit the roof reading them.

You think you live in a world of tolerance, you know that there is hate, but don't tend to see it on a daily basis. I don't have friends that are generally unthinkinglly bigoted. It is often a shock to me how bad it can be, in a completly unthinking manner.

It reminds me of my Uncle (Aussie) - he is lovely in many ways, but on visiting his grand-daughter in/near Manchester he was surprised, and she noted that he said "look, there is a black walking down your street - and another one!" - he was confused/bemused to learn they LIVED on the SAME road!!
*sigh*
I don't think he will learn, he lives in a 100% white suburb and he wouldn't consider himself racist, but they should live in their places and we live in ours.

Random News

IBS link to food allergies

Cats compete
on TV reality show
They are all rescue cats, and will all get homes.

Anna Mae He (again)

The Fighting 44, an Asian/American blog has a commentary on the case of Anna Mae He that makes very interesting reading as it details the history of the legal judgements, particularly the (alleged) racial bias of one of the early judges for the Good Christian Americans versus the Non-Christian Immigrant Chinese.

One of the big reasons for this whole issue is that the fostering was done via a private agency, not the state, and therefore the rules are different.

the Bakers had kept written records of every visit by the Hes to their house. One might forget how the Bakers wished to reduce the number of visits the Hes made and minimize any emotional attachment AMH could have formed. What was it Mrs. Baker said in her journal? “We would like to get visits to every other week. We feel like they would wean away, but the last 2 visits we could see Casey is wanting to come more”

Whitney Butts - Girl gamer

The following article appears in The Escapist, a web magazine about gaming and related stuff.

In it Whitney explains that OMG Girlz don't exist on teh intarweb!!!!1 even though she (apparently) is one.

Hmm, I have gamed. I spent a lot of time in Star Wars Galexies and yes, I probably was the only actual female in the Guild. Worse I was married to a fellow guildie. Still...... it was a mature guild (20-50) and people were reasonable :)

Interesting to think how far we have come yet how far we have to go.