jmichaelfortenberry

[jmichaelfortenberry]

Self-Love List: Day 1

Today I love myself because I succeeded. 

My successes were as follows:

I laundered two loads of laundry, folded them or hanged them as appropriate, and put them away.

I washed the dishes, twice. (Such is a thing when you realize that you left dishes in a room that is not the kitchen.)

I cleaned the bathroom, and swept the floor in two other rooms. 

I cleaned the grass clippings off of the lawn mower because I noticed them and I am kinda weird.

But most importantly...

I finished the first draft of Chapter 2 of my new project, and emailed it to my two closest friends, who I truly hope enjoy reading it. 

and

I followed through on my promise to myself to write this list on this blog.

Thank you for reading.

[jmichaelfortenberry]

No one Hates me like I Hate me.

Well,

A huge part of my depression is self hatred and loathing. I can easily list my many failures and faults, but I spend little time focusing on whatever success may be extant in my life.

This I mean to change. 

I hope by trying to focus on the good, I can continue to move in a more positive direction. So I will be trying to post something about my successes for that day, at least once a day (more if it’s a particularly good day).

It’s true that no one hates me like I hate me, but some people like, and even love, me. This is my journey to find out why.

(For the record: This is my first success. I’ve followed through with starting this journey.)

[jmichaelfortenberry]

A story by Terry Bission As published in Omni, 1990.

THEY’RE MADE OUT OF MEAT

“They’re made out of meat.”

“Meat?”

“Meat. They’re made out of meat.”

“Meat?”

“There’s no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They’re completely meat.”

“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?”

“They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don’t come from them. The signals come from machines.”

“So who made the machines? That’s who we want to contact.”

“They made the machines. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.”

“That’s ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You’re asking me to believe in sentient meat.”

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they’re made out of meat.”

“Maybe they’re like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.”

“Nope. They’re born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn’t take long. Do you have any idea what’s the life span of meat?”

“Spare me. Okay, maybe they’re only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.”

“Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They’re meat all the way through.”

“No brain?”

“Oh, there’s a brain all right. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“So … what does the thinking?”

“You’re not understanding, are you? You’re refusing to deal with what I’m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.”

“Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”

“Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?”

“Omigod. You’re serious then. They’re made out of meat.”

“Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they’ve been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.”

“Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?”

“First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual.”

“We’re supposed to talk to meat.”

“That’s the idea. That’s the message they’re sending out by radio. ‘Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.’ That sort of thing.”

“They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?”

“Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat.”

“I thought you just told me they used radio.”

“They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.”

“Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?”

“Officially or unofficially?”

“Both.”

“Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.”

“I was hoping you would say that.”

“It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?”

“I agree one hundred percent. What’s there to say? 'Hello, meat. How’s it going?��� But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?”

“Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can’t live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact.”

“So we just pretend there’s no one home in the Universe.”

“That’s it.”

“Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You’re sure they won’t remember?”

“They’ll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we’re just a dream to them.”

“A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat’s dream.”

“And we marked the entire sector unoccupied.”

“Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?”

“Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again.”

[jmichaelfortenberry]

[jmichaelfortenberry]

This is truly incredible.

[jmichaelfortenberry]

Tips to learn a new language

The 75 most common words make up 40% of occurrences The 200 most common words make up 50% of occurrences The 524 most common words make up 60% of occurrences The 1257 most common words make up 70% of occurrences The 2925 most common words make up 80% of occurrences The 7444 most common words make up 90% of occurrences The 13374 most common words make up 95% of occurrences The 25508 most common words make up 99% of occurrences

(Sources: 5 Steps to Speak a New Language by Hung Quang Pham)

This article has an excellent summary on how to rapidly learn a new language within 90 days.

We can begin with studying the first 600 words. Of course chucking is an effective way to memorize words readily. Here’s a list to translate into the language you desire to learn that I grabbed from here! :)

EXPRESSIONS OF POLITENESS (about 50 expressions)      

‘Yes’ and ‘no’: yes, no, absolutely, no way, exactly.    

Question words: when? where? how? how much? how many? why? what? who? which? whose?    

Apologizing: excuse me, sorry to interrupt, well now, I’m afraid so, I’m afraid not.    

Meeting and parting: good morning, good afternoon, good evening, hello, goodbye, cheers, see you later, pleased to meet you, nice to have met.    

Interjections: please, thank you, don’t mention it, sorry, it’ll be done, I agree, congratulations, thank heavens, nonsense.    

NOUNS (about 120 words)

Time: morning, afternoon, evening, night; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; spring, summer, autumn, winter; time, occasion, minute, half-hour, hour, day, week, month, year.    

People: family, relative, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, husband, wife; colleague, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend; people, person, human being, man, woman, lady, gentleman, boy, girl, child.    

Objects: address, bag, book, car, clothes, key, letter (=to post), light (=lamp), money, name, newspaper, pen, pencil, picture, suitcase, thing, ticket.    

Places: place, world, country, town, street, road, school, shop, house, apartment, room, ground; Britain, name of the foreign country, British town-names, foreign town-names.    

Abstract: accident, beginning, change, color, damage, fun, half, help, joke, journey, language, English, name of the foreign language, letter (of alphabet), life, love, mistake, news, page, pain, part, question, reason, sort, surprise, way (=method), weather, work.    

Other: hand, foot, head, eye, mouth, voice; the left, the right; the top, the bottom, the side; air, water, sun, bread, food, paper, noise.    

PREPOSITIONS (about 40 words)    

General: of, to, at, for, from, in, on.    

Logical: about, according-to, except, like, against, with, without, by, despite, instead of.    

Space: into, out of, outside, towards, away from, behind, in front of, beside, next to, between, above, on top of, below, under, underneath, near to, a long way from, through.    

Time: after, ago, before, during, since, until.    

DETERMINERS (about 80 words)  

Articles and numbers: a, the; nos. 0–20; nos. 30–100; nos. 200–1000; last, next, 1st–12th.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.    

Quantifiers: all, some, no, any, many, much, more, less, a few, several, whole, a little, a lot of.    

Comparators: both, neither, each, every, other, another, same, different, such.    

ADJECTIVES (about 80 words)    

Color: black, blue, green, red, white, yellow.    

Evaluative: bad, good, terrible; important, urgent, necessary; possible, impossible; right, wrong, true.    

General: big, little, small, heavy; high, low; hot, cold, warm; easy, difficult; cheap, expensive; clean, dirty; beautiful, funny (=comical), funny (=odd), usual, common (=shared), nice, pretty, wonderful; boring, interesting, dangerous, safe; short, tall, long; new, old; calm, clear, dry; fast, slow; finished, free, full, light (=not dark), open, quiet, ready, strong.    

Personal: afraid, alone, angry, certain, cheerful, dead, famous, glad, happy, ill, kind, married, pleased, sorry, stupid, surprised, tired, well, worried, young.    

VERBS (about 100 words)    

arrive, ask, be, be able to, become, begin, believe, borrow, bring, buy, can, change, check, collect, come, continue, cry, do, drop, eat, fall, feel, find, finish, forget, give, going to, have, have to, hear, help, hold, hope, hurt (oneself), hurt (someone else), keep, know, laugh, learn, leave, lend, let (=allow), lie down, like, listen, live (=be alive), live (=reside), look (at), look for, lose, love, make, may (=permission), may (=possibility), mean, meet, must, need, obtain, open, ought to, pay, play, put, read, remember, say, see, sell, send, should, show, shut, sing, sleep, speak, stand, stay, stop, suggest, take, talk, teach, think, travel, try, understand, use, used to, wait for, walk, want, watch, will, work (=operate), work (=toil), worry, would, write.    

PRONOUNS (about 40 words)

Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, one; myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.    

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Universal: everyone, everybody, everything, each, both, all, one, another.    

Indefinite: someone, somebody, something, some, a few, a little, more, less; anyone, anybody, anything, any, either, much, many.    

Negative: no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither.    

ADVERBS (about 60 words)

Place: here, there, above, over, below, in front, behind, nearby, a long way away, inside, outside, to the right, to the left, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, home, upstairs, downstairs.    

Time: now, soon, immediately, quickly, finally, again, once, for a long time, today, generally, sometimes, always, often, before, after, early, late, never, not yet, still, already, then (=at that time), then (=next), yesterday, tomorrow, tonight.    

Quantifiers: a little, about (=approximately), almost, at least, completely, very, enough, exactly, just, not, too much, more, less.    

Manner: also, especially, gradually, of course, only, otherwise, perhaps, probably, quite, so, then (=therefore), too (=also), unfortunately, very much, well.    

CONJUNCTIONS (about 30 words)

Coordinating: and, but, or; as, than, like.    

Time & Place: when, while, before, after, since (=time), until; where.    

Manner & Logic: how, why, because, since (=because), although, if; what, who, whom, whose, which, that.   

[jmichaelfortenberry]

It’s Bisexual Awareness Week, Tumblr!

This GIF is transparent, by the way. If you’re into transparent art, feel free to download, edit, upload, bring awareness to BiWeek, have the time of your lives.

[jmichaelfortenberry]

The first look at Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bryan Singer’s biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

[jmichaelfortenberry]

New promotional character posters for Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

[jmichaelfortenberry]

[jmichaelfortenberry]

This is going to sound preachy...

and a bit annoying. I feel it must be said. There is no such thing as a (x) month anniversary. Please stop saying it. You sound stupid. Anniversary comes from the Latin for "returning yearly". YEARLY NOT MONTHLY! Okay, I now sound like a total ass. I know I get upset about things that mean nothing to most other people, but since I've come this far, I'm going to offer up some information. Many people have offered the following word for an event that occurs monthly: mensiversary. It comes from the latin word for monthly. If, by some chance you want to celebrate something by the day, week, or hour, then by using the same latin formula we would arrive at the following words: Day: deiversary. Week: septemiversary. Hour: horaversary. I know this is pointless, but I hope it changes the common english language. (I'm dreaming, aren't I?)

[jmichaelfortenberry]

Happy National Women's Equality Day.

[jmichaelfortenberry]

Bi things no one talks about

Straight women being repulsed by bisexual men, because he’s secretly gay.

Gay women having a ban on bisexual women, because they are “greedy” or “experimenting” or “will cheat on me with a man”.

Straight men asking bisexual women constantly if they want or have had threesomes, as if bisexual women are only sex objects.

Gay men refusing to acknowledge their partners as bisexual, or even trying to “turn them”. 

These are not okay, these hurt bisexual people. 

[jmichaelfortenberry]

When you mix blue and red it makes Purple.  Purple isn’t referred to as half blue and half red.  It is it’s own color in and of itself and it has a name, Purple! And sometimes depending on how it’s mixed, it turns out more red or more blue, but it is still referred to as Purple.  And sometimes depending on how it’s mixed, it can be lighter or sometimes its darker, but it is still referred to as Purple.  And sometimes many of these different shades and hues also have their own names, but even then they are all also still referred to as Purple!

The same goes for Bisexual+ people and the Bi+ Community.  Still here, still queer, and not going to disappear.  💗 💜 💙

[jmichaelfortenberry]

So, Life's a Tumble

Life’s a perpetual tumble.

You never know exactly where you’ll hit your head next.

But instead of focusing on the unsure things, I’ll share with you this tidbit:

Yesterday I was talking with two of my gay friends about gay culture, and specifically gay idioms that I was previously unaware of. The conversation drifted toward Drag Queens, and then to how to make me up in drag. After several moments of being the pure subject of discussion, where my features and flaws were openly discussed as if I were an old car being critiqued, they worked together to give me a drag name.

So, if I were a drag queen, my name would be Alexis Allure.

[jmichaelfortenberry]

Beautiful.

Book Dress by Sylvie Facon

[jmichaelfortenberry]

You and Me

I have met you. I have touched you. I have heard you. When my eyes first beheld you, they were amazed. When you first laughed and casually touched my shoulder, my heart jumped. When I heard you explain some of your thoughts, I was enamored. But then I met You. And then I touched You. And I truly heard You. When you began to reveal deeper self-truths, I saw the You behind the you. And as I saw more, I felt more. A connection, a deep connection began to form. When You casually, but not so casually, touched my hand, I truly felt it with my soul. No matter what happened after that, I was forever marked by our connection, and I feel that mark changed me for the better. It brought out the better Me behind the me. And as You defined your thought, explaining your philosophy, your spirituality, your Self, I heard You, and found the very definition of a compatable mind. It was then that I truly met You. And I saw You. And heard You. And with each revelation, I tried to show You more of Me. But I worried. You had met Me. You had seen Me. You had heard Me. But did You like Me? Is the You that I've discovered interested in the Me that I've revealed? Then You kissed Me.