I read a lot.
I sometimes keep track of what I read here.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
omg I am fangirling a lot about this!!!
Dear friend,
I’m writing to tell you, among other things, that I am super gay. This may or may not come as a surprise to you. If it does: Surprise! If it does not: You were right all along! Either way: Hooray!
I didn’t want to come out. I don’t want coming out to be a thing that anyone has to do.
A short list of things I’d rather be doing than “thinking about being gay” includes (but is not limited to) writing a song, reading a book, climbing a tree, dancing a jig, and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the zillionth time. Don’t get me wrong - I think it is in the best interest of everyone to strive for a greater understanding of the self. I just wish that being gay (or transgender, or asexual, or fill-in-the-blank here) was as unremarkable to the masses as being left-handed or blonde.
In a perfect world, nobody would have to experience any of the negative side-effects of figuring out that you’re gay, which can include feeling confused, shameful, afraid, lost, or alone. In a perfect world, everyone could just like who they like, and get on with it.
Spoiler alert: We do not live in a perfect world.
I began to realize that I was interested in girls in junior high. At first, it made me uncomfortable. I grew up in a fairly rural, conservative town. I knew exactly one kid who was out at school, and he was harassed on a daily basis. I had always sort of liked feeling different from most of the kids at school – you know, poetry over football and whatnot. But I didn’t want to be THAT different.
My feelings were further complicated by my religious upbringing. My family attended a born-again style church which taught (as many churches do) that homosexuality is a sin. The price of that sin, should you find yourself unable to turn away from it, was to burn in a pit of fiery torment for all eternity. I was an impressionable kid, and hell was advertised to me as very real - and very likely, if I didn’t watch my step. I internalized these ideas as a child and as I grew, they grew with me.
But other growth was happening simultaneously. Over time I got more comfortable with myself, lost a few friends, and made some new ones.When I began my journey as a musician, I decided that I didn’t want to publicly address my sexuality. I didn’t think it was a big deal, or relevant to my job in any way. I also worried that the first word people would associate with me was going to be “gay” instead of “musician.” I didn’t want a non-musical part of myself overshadowing the musical part. Plus I figured it wasn’t anybody’s business.
I still maintain that it is not anybody’s business. I don’t think anyone should have to feel an obligation to come out. I don’t think that outing people is cool. I think every person has the right to privacy, and should be able to share themselves with their friends, their family, and the world at their own pace, in their own time. However, I’ve come to realize in recent months that a big part of my desire to hide this aspect of myself was rooted in those dusty old feelings: that there is something wrong, something bad, something less-than about being gay.
It brings me no pleasure to admit to you that I have felt these feelings. I want to appear strong, because I feel strong now. But at the same time I know it is important - perhaps even the whole point of writing this thing - to make myself vulnerable. Because I know that there are human beings out in the world who understand these feelings but cannot give them a name. I want to tell you that it’s okay to feel messed up. Feeling messed up is a part of life, but it is not the only part. And the only way out of that feeling is through.
This summer I am going to marry my fiancé. Her name is Kristin Russo and she is one half of the team behind EveryoneIsGay.com. Having a firsthand view of the work that she and Dannielle do has been inspiring, and has also made me think more critically about my decision. What kind of a message does it send to a teenager when I avoid a question about my sexuality? Whatever the answer, I’m confident that it is no longer a message I am comfortable sending.
I think it is damaging and isolating for young people to look out into the world and not see a representation of their experience. To encounter others who are like you is to know that you are not alone. Even if you never meet them in real life, these representatives help to contextualize you – they are proof that you are part of something.
You are not an anomaly. You are not a mistake.
I am thankful that in recent years, it has become a bit more common for people from all walks of life to step forward and identify themselves as human beings who also happen to be gay. I am proud to offer my voice to that expanding chorus.
Love,
Jenny
includes: amicable numbers, betrothed numbers, emirps, interesting numbers, powerful numbers, perfect powers, achilles numbers, abundant numbers, semiperfect numbers, perfect numbers, weird numbers, happy numbers, narcissistic numbers, and repunits.
In graph theory, a snark is a cubic graph (meaning, every vertex has degree three) whose edges cannot be three-colored.
In complexity theory, a snarg is a succinct non-interactive argument, and a snark is a succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge. In more detail, a snarg is a system for proving membership in some language in NP. (so, for example, we could have a relation R, where R(x,y) means “y is a valid 3-coloring of x”. So, x is a 3-colorable graph if and only if there exists some witness y such that R(x, y) is true.)
A snarg consists of three algorithms: a Generator, a Prover, and a Verifier. The Generator takes as input a security parameter and produces a common reference string (crs) and some private verification coins (priv). The Prover has access to the crs, and for a give x, if the Prover knows a y such that R(x, y) = true, he produces a proof Pi that x is in the language. A verifier has access to the crs, priv, x, and the proof Pi and must decide whether x is in the language or not.
1. completeness: If the prover knows a y such that R(x, y) = true, and he acts honestly, the Verifier must accept with probability (almost) 1.
2. soundness: If there is no y such that R(x, y) = true, then no matter what kind of proof Pi the Prover produces, the Verifier should reject with probability (almost) 1.
3. succinctness: The proof Pi must have size polynomial in the security parameter and the size of x.
A snark is a snarg with one additional property.
4. proof of knowledge: Essentially, a Prover should only be able to produce a valid proof if it actually knows a witness. In other words, if a Prover produces an (x, Pi) that verifies, there must be some poly-time extractor that, given access to the same information the Prover had, can find a y such that R(x, y) = true.
An edge-colored graph is rainbow-connected if between every two vertices of the graph, there exists a path such that each edge on the path has a distinct color. For a graph G, its rainbow connection number, rc(G), is the smallest number of colors needed to create a valid rainbow-connected coloring of the graph.
(Source: http)
So we already discussed the crab — V.v.V (or, as alert reader penguinperverson put it, an emoticrab)— but here are some more. For science. And productivity. Scientific productivity.
\m/ is the devil’s horns, for congratulatory or Satan-summoning purposes.+/’\ is a cowbell that rings. Because,…
but the most important one is that ~@~ is a poop.
Commentary.
In February, I posted two pieces in Bed-Stuy on Tompkins and Halsey. These two pieces got the most attention of any pieces I’ve put up so far. Within a few days, someone had written his response to the work directly onto the posters. From there, a woman wrote a response to him. And it went on and, on with different hand-written comments creating this kind of interesting discussion. The pieces remained up until a week or so ago, when the phallic image was drawn. That’s when I decided to try to take them down.
The “Stop Telling Women to Smile” piece remained in tact enough for me to include it in the exhibition. I thought it was important to present in the show, so that people could view these written reactions.
dudes: drawing dicks on things from the age of 13 until they drop dead
(Source: stoptellingwomentosmile)
lol @ fartsylvania
my parents supply to retailers like JCpenny, Marshall’s and other smaller stores. we are wholesales which means we pay the cheapest you can get for fabric and it still cost a shitload. my family’s been doing this for like ever, trust.
in the end we all have our own opinions. all I know is I’m sticking to what I’ve learned from the family business plus being a business manufacturing &management major.
what convenient last minute evidence that is actually not supported by how this actually works. i have discovered evidence that i am your parents’ mom and i’m taking us on a family vacation to fartsylvania.
hello, people with no actual insight deciding fat people clothes cost an insane amount to make on the scale of major retailers: please stop reading my blog. i am tired of indulging your fantasy bullshit. this has been covered.
p.s. if you’d like to name your parents’ business, i can actually tell you who gets fabric cheaper and who makes their clothes cheaper and where. send me an ask, and i won’t publish it if you don’t want me to, but… you are wrong.
(via nmsuwsprof)
(Source: colinfirthhasmoved)
