:: Turning gold to chrome

Him: “Are you a lesbian?”

Not again.

Me: “What does that have to do with anything?”

I’m annoyed at being interrupted with this kind of inane question. Again. Twice in as many days, makes you wonder if someone tattooed “Lesbian” in capitals all over your forehead without you noticing. And all I really want at that moment is to just continue dancing. (Lovely DJs that night!).

“Well, yes or no?”

Considering my options. Answers along the lines of in regards to you, most definitely might be more trouble than it’s worth.

“It’s none of your business.”

At last he gives up in disgust. Of course, he’s now convinced that I am a lesbian and simply too ashamed to admit to it. Not that I mind, at least it keeps him from trying to flirt and means I can continue showing my appreciation to the DJ.

Quite some time later I watch one of the door guards grabbing his arm and half dragging half guiding him at top speed towards one of the emergency exits. Unfortunately, I don’t know what it was he did that validating ejecting him. Maybe he asked the guard if he was gay, too.

Walking along a passageway connecting the different subway lines. In front and slightly to the left of me, a man suddenly lights a cigarette and starts drawing on it rapidly. A cloud of smoke billows right into my face. He turns around and catches my disapproving glance at his hand holding the cigarette.

He mutters something I can’t quiet make out, not an apology, a question. Since his general appearance isn’t exactly confidence inspiring, I ignore him and walk on. He drops back to fall in beside me, still smoking compulsively.

Him (false smile): “How are you?”

I continue walking, ignoring him after another short glance, not quiet a smile on my face. Not an unfriendly expression, but not one inviting further conversation either.

Him (slightly louder): “Are you a lesbian? You act like a lesbian!”

How exactly did he arrive at that conclusion? I don’t like cigarettes (being smoked in a public building where smoking has been prohibited for more years than I can remember), so I must be a lesbian? I don’t feel like talking to a smoking, smelly, badly dressed stranger with no manners, so I must be a lesbian? You haven’t got laid in a long time have you? And when you did, I’m just guessing here, but correct me if I’m wrong, your charming manner wasn’t the transaction’s currency.

Unfortunately, while I would have liked to come up with a witty, cutting reply to his bit of idiocy, at the time I was simply too unprepared to react at all and just kept walking, trying hard not to laugh.

He ignores me after that and takes a different train, still smoking as he gets on.

Posh hotel lounge one day and and run-down rock club the next. Had fun at both places though.

Also, african food is now a new favourite!

Silence. It’s underrated.

If all response you get from your co-workers is an occasional grunt or strained half-smile, you ought to consider keeping your trap shut.

In the interest of your own safety, if nothing else. After all, there is not much that cannot be achieved with determination and duct tape.

Thank you John C. Koss for the invention of headphones! Reducing office related violence since 1958.

Joined boyfriend for some after work gathering at his work. Surpisingly nice actually. Chatted with a couple of different people about superficial things. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of this social smalltalk thing. On the other hand, it could just have been the wine. Mhm, wine.

Met up with M afterwards and had a lovely talk over unhealthy amounts of tea. Feeling quite dehydrated today. M and me going out for coffee on our own is a new thing, even though we’ve been friends for years. Strange how that works sometimes.

Another night of broken sleep. Kitty #2 meowing constantly. Sometime during the middle of the night (my sleep deprived brain couldn’t be bothered to look at the clock) I went up to try to persuade her to let me have my beauty sleep.

Turns out, kitty #1 had fled to the top of the kitchen cabinet and kitty #2 was feeling lonely. Some petting. Gave her a boost up to the cupboard to join him and everyone was happy – well, maybe not everyone, I’m quite sure kitty #1 gave me The Look but I wasn’t awake enough to appreciate it.

Having a 40-hour-job, five days a week, nine to five (or in my case, seven to four) makes being spontaneous or just in general having an interesting life somewhat hard. Or maybe it’s just me and I’m too lazy to put the effort in it.

Everyone wants to have an interesting life. Fascinating, scandelously and effortlessly fun – something other people envy you for. It’s the reason we watch movies and read books. Mind you, this is probably the mid-life crisis talking (I love being able to say that, you can practically blame anything on it!), but if you had the chance for a completely different life, just for a day, wouldn’t you take it?

Requirements: A personality switch, a time turner and a change of scenery.

Try as I might to avoid any front-end code (though WPF or Windows Forms are less horrible by far than traditional web interfaces), I just know it will catch up with me. This snippet is something I really could have used last year when I was working with a WPF application.

#region $PROPNAME$ Property

public $PROPTYPE$ $PROPNAME$
{
    get { return ($PROPTYPE$) GetValue($PROPNAME$Property); }
    set { SetValue($PROPNAME$Property,value); }
}

public static readonly DependencyProperty $PROPNAME$Property = DependencyProperty.Register("$PROPNAME$", typeof($PROPTYPE$), typeof($DECLARING_TYPE$), new PropertyMetadata($DEF_VALUE$, On$PROPNAME$Changed));

private static void On$PROPNAME$Changed(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
    $DECLARING_TYPE$ $DECLARING_TYPE_var$ = d as $DECLARING_TYPE$;
    $END$
}

#endregion

[via Roy Osherove]

On a side-note, while trying to work out how to best format the snippet to look halfway good on a blog, I found this very useful site that does just that. With just a small adjustment to get wrapping to work in all browsers, it is good to go and simple to use.

An animation that attempts to illustrate the concepts presented in chapter one of the book “Imagining the Tenth Dimension” by Rob Bryanton. Fascinating, if brain-twisting.

I wonder if I dare to try and read the book. I am tempted but my brain might just overheat and explode.

The USA is one of two only countries not to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which among other commitments to protecting persons under the age of 18, forbids life sentences without parole. The other country is Somalia.

The numbers

• 2,225: Inmates serving life without parole for crimes committed as minors
• 42: States that allow life without parole for minors
• 14: States that have no minimum age for life sentences
• 73: Documented cases of minors serving life without parole for crimes committed as 13-, 14-year-olds
• 44: States that passed laws between 1992 and 1997 making it easier try minors as adults

According to a Human Rights Watch publication from 2008,

..the United States is alone in the world in applying this harsh sentence to juveniles, that an estimated 59 percent of youth who receive the sentence had no prior adjudications or convictions, and that there are currently nearly 2,500 offenders who are serving life without parole for crimes committed while they were a juvenile. Additionally, data reveal that there are stark racial disparities in the imposition of the sentence, with black youth serving life without parole at a per capita rate that is 10 times the rate of white youth.

Of course, then there is Guantanamo:

The detainees were brought to Guantanamo between the ages of 15 and 17, and have now been in detention there for more than six years. [hrw]

Each of these five individuals has been held in US custody for over six years, but has been denied basic juvenile justice protections or special consideration because of their potential status as former child soldiers. [hrw]

Makes you think.

[Articles: Colorlines, Spiegel, Human Rights Watch 1 2 3, msnbc, cnn]