Lair of Pathia Soyinka

Critiquing media with the unwashed masses

2008-07-27T19:18:34Z

I've had this post percolating through my brain for a few weeks now. Most of it has been derived from previous arguments and stories from krdbuni in particular and a story she related from circuit_four and a very recent discussion with kuddlepup

First of all, I don't mean any disrespect to any of those that are going to end up in the cross hairs of this explanation/rant. I will also try to remember to always link back to this post in the future whenever I review something.

I am not a professional media person, in any way shape or form. Please do not reference your vast amounts of experience and degrees in awesomeness when trying to explain why you do or do not enjoy a particular thing of media. Not only does this often come across as arrogant, but also dismissive of the other individual's abilities to have opinions. If you are so forceful with your expertness, you come across as "Shut up you little inexperienced worm, and let me tell you how the world REALLY works." You have now not only asserted yourself as being more qualified to have an opinion, but made a dick out of yourself without even really knowing.

This especially true if you constantly and unending reference the fact you are an expert, or a professional critic over and over again. If all you can do is keep asserting your knowledge of a subject as being superior, then you really need to try a different tactic. You are just insulting the person at this point and if that person happens to be me, because of my pain-in-the-ass nature, you have just guaranteed that I am going to argue with you until the sun expands into a red giant.

I am not saying your experience is not relevant, pointless or unnecessary. It simply is not relevant for me. We cannot argue or discuss the media on a fair playing ground. I am coming to the fight on the playground with a stick, while you bring in a handgun if not a submachine gun. Once you have become an expert in a particular media, literally your experiences for the rest of your life have been altered. You cannot, easily, view something from any other perspective than your view as an expert.

Please, please, please keep this in mind whenever discussing something with people that are lesser educated than yourselves. Keep in mind that 99% if not MORE of the entire population of the world will have no idea what the hell you're talking about unless you try to take it down to their level in some way. Whether or not this is actually even possible to do is of some debate, but my personal opinion is there is no way. You are forever altered by your experiences, and especially so when this experience is something that has developed you into an expert. It is possible however, to recognize that fact, and compensate for it in other ways.

tldr version of the above - Please don't wave your e-penis at me when you debate a particular form of media with me.

My luck roll for this month is now officially a 1

2008-07-16T05:21:35Z

So right now my checking account reads as somewhere around negative *insert five digit figure* here. Why? Well, I made a large deposit, and in the way things work with very large checks, they're supposed to credit your account, then put that amount on hold.

They only did that second part.

So, until they fix it, their system is going to continue bitchslapping me with gigantic fees until they manage to figure out who flipped the wrong switch and/or pushed the wrong button.

I am going to get a new bank, probably a credit union, as soon as fucking possible. This is absolutely retarded.

I can dispute, and win, all these charges. Conveniently however I can only call during business hours to get the department that does such things. Conveniently the hold time will be ridiculous, and keep me from getting any work done.

Further Confusion Room space?

2008-07-11T06:56:36Z

I managed to secure time off for FC. I wasn't sure about it until this past week, and since the hotel sold out in like 3fucking hours, I need to put a call out for roomspace. I'll be with tyrc obviously, and we'd prefer to room together, but we could probably bare being apart for a few nights if necessary given the hotel space premiums.

I am OK with chair/floor/underbed for all I care. I can sleep standing up, so location doesn't matter really *laugh*

Charlieeeeeeeeee

2008-04-17T06:48:23Z

pathia @ 2008-02-04T17:53:00

2008-02-05T01:54:58Z

Cindy Lou Torres-Owens
12/16/1957-02/04/2008

Rest in peace mom...

BEHOLD!

2007-10-31T09:35:55Z

I haven't gotten word back from microsoft, but that doesn't really matter because I have been employed by the

MIGHTY MONARCH!

Icon courtesy of Sapphire!

My uncle's band

2007-07-21T08:44:01Z

On Hampton Roads.tv
Their myspace

Anthony Torres is my uncle, yea yea I know, strong family resemblence and all that ;-)

Anthrocon Post

2007-07-03T11:13:38Z

I head out for Anthrocon in a few hours. This is the obligatory post, I'm going to screen comments, if you wanna swap phone numbers then post yours here.

I'll post more details later once I arrive!

Family

2007-06-28T12:36:10Z

It continues to crumble in horrible wails of agony.

Apparently my dad tried to rally just about everyone to petition a local mental health group to take mom in, in some sort of intervention.

It...didn't go well. See, she's not suicidal, so really they couldn't do anything, but mom found out he was planning this. So now all of her protests of 'everyone out to get her' are more or less true, which means she's shoving everyone away even faster.

She's also hellbent on wedging her new guy into my life too, despite me being 3000 miles away. Apparently she's told him 'everything' about me, and he's perfectly fine with my lifestyle and that it would be wonderful if I would visit them or talk to him on the phone. Seriously...what...the...fuck. Is it normal for your fifty year old mom to want you talk to her three-week boyfriend as if he was some sort of new father figure?

Ontop of this her CA125 counts are through the roof. She maintains that she's feeling great and alive but cancer is starting to spread out through her body at a scary rate.

My youngest brother, who was always closest to mom, is so shocked and stunned by this his grades have been falling apart. So, he's thought about joining the military and dropping out of college.

Oh yea, ontop of all this? That interview is in a few hours...lovely...just wonderful. I'm a fucking mental carwreck and I have that on my shoulders to deal with in the middle of it. Wonderful

Shambles: The state of my family

2007-06-22T01:54:48Z

So much crazyness I can't even really get a grip on it enough to actually express an emotion of the situation.

1.) Mom's dating someone she met on match.com, they started sleeping together on the first date.
2.) His name is Rick, just like my dad's
3.) He even looks sort of like a heavier version of my father apparently.
4.) At every point and turn she tries to get this guy into the family, including introducing him to my 2.5year old niece as her 'new big big daddy'
5.) They've only been dating two weeks.
6.) My brother has told her he doesn't want the guy around his daughter.
7.) Mom keeps 'forgetting' this and blames it on the chemotherapy and has the guy 'accidentally' meet my niece over and over.
8.) Grandparents then decided they had enough and told mom she can't have this guy over at their place. (Mom is living with her parents during all this)
9.) So mom gets an apartment and uses dad's charge cards to get a place she can sleep with this guy.
10.) She continues to spend 2000-3000 a month over the internet on various unnecessary things.
11.) She's spent roughly 80% of my father's retirement at this point.
12.) She filed for divorce requesting the typical 50/50 split, which means in the end mom will have gotten 90% of my dad's money over the last four years.

I don't know whether to laugh at the absurdity or cry for the loss of my mother. She's gone. I don't know where she went.

Pyrex sucks now

2007-04-30T12:45:44Z

Apparently at some point, without really telling consumers, Pyrex changed over to regular soda-lime glass. This is the stuff that really really cheap glass products are made of, it used to be made of labratory grade Borosilicate glass. This allowed it to be heated to high temperatures by bunsen burners, it eventually migrated into the kitchen.

Yet what does their website say, despite it being made out of really cheap ass glass?

"PYREX® glassware products can go directly from refrigerator or freezer to a microwave, convection, or preheated conventional oven."

Why am I babbling about this at 5:34am PST? Well, tyrc was doing a cookie round like before and was melting some butter. She had the pyrex piece filled with butter looking and talking to me over the sink. It did not touch anything and suddenly simply exploded, shattering into many many pieces. Multiple large chunks, but what was in her hand was nearly sandlike. It happened so fast and so surreal like it felt like a jumpcut from a really low budget movie. One second pyrex, another second a hand full of glass grits.

Apparently this is a common phenomenon now and it seems relatively luck that the kitchen itself and she herself were undamaged due to the insane forces of these explosions. I am pretty sure had there not been borders around the glass would have been thrown well over ten to fifteen feet in either direction if not more. Pyrex USED to be able to be heated on a burner, however they changed the glass type and have not really educated the consumer that the 'Pyrex' they buy now functions NOTHING like the 'Pyrex' from decades ago.

Linkies
More
More still

Mom is home

2007-03-23T00:44:20Z

But that's about the extent of the good news.

She's riddled with tiny tumors. The chemo is not working, they're going to have to biopsy and try to find another regimine.

So...

2007-03-16T01:27:30Z

Do any of you live in the region of this route?

Mom is too sick and in the midst of chemotherapy, so she will not be joining me on the trek. I will go utterly bat shit insane if I do not meet some of you on the way!

**Note. With this far of a drive, 3-5hours 'out of the way' is not really 'out of the way' because as long as I go westish, I am going the right way**

LT3M Fundraising Marathon

2007-02-24T13:41:14Z

Pretty much everyone is DJ'ing today in a 24hour long marathon. That means pretty much EVERYTHING is covered. Tune in! Dragons demand it! Unless you're working all day like me, there's no excuse not to tune in at least for a bit!

Cell phone for FC

2007-01-16T13:18:14Z

If you want to trade phone numbers, reply to this. It's screened, so I'll reply with my number in private.

Voice Post:

2007-01-16T01:49:04Z

Day six and counting.

2007-01-15T05:55:18Z

Pretty much been doing 12-16hour days nonstop before the con. Will continue to do so up until my flight, gotta make up for the time off after all.

Sorry if I haven't been around much folks.

Voice Post

2006-12-05T04:49:01Z

Work...

2006-11-26T02:21:30Z

My manager is an awesome guy. He helped me deal with the crazy annoying people that bugged me at work. He's been supportive and understanding and more than willing to listen to me rant about any number of things.

This manager is being transfered. The new manager is my age, in fact he went to highschool with me. Those normally would be pluses.

Unconfirmed, but he's already said disparaging remarks about me or rather 'people like me'.

Given that he attends a very small nondenominational sect church that meets in rotating family member's basements it is not hard to discern what he means by 'people like me'.

This may not go well.

Quest for a Wii

2006-11-24T12:23:17Z

No dice. Every store within 50miles got almost nothing. I was in line at a EB Games, about 20th of 50. They only got four units and didn't expect any for another two weeks. The local gamestop is preordered until somewhere around december 15th.

My guess is why it's so fucking hard for me to snag one compared to some of the rest is...I live in the suburbs of DC. Every single gamestop/eb games/walmart gets a line by close the evening before the next shipment. There must be some sort of information network I'm not aware of going on. However, I actually have a life so I refuse to stand in line for more than 30minutes heh.

Mom

2006-11-23T02:16:43Z

The cancer is back in full force. The reason why she was in the hospital before was thought to be a hiatal hernia . No...it was a rapid growing cancer blob that was causing fluid to build up and cause symptoms exactly like a hiatal hernia.

She goes in for emergency surgery and starts chemotherapy monday.

Dragon Metal

2006-10-24T01:11:06Z

Is live in fifty minutes!

http://www.lt3m.com/listen.m3u

Also, I'll be in Second Life tonight.
secondlife://Masquerade_Valley/152/223/21

Sick

2006-10-09T22:02:36Z

I am sick and very icky. No Dragon Metal tonight. Maybe some other night this week I'll randomly spin some.

My head feels like a sack of bricks that have been liquified and they are draining down into my lungs.

Fairly certain stress just hammered my immune system and something got me.

Work Drama

2006-10-08T00:32:29Z

I've not said much about transition drama or the act itself, because there really isn't much to say. I go to work, I wear what I want to wear, I just am me. There's no real drama in that, until today at work.

There are some new guys in the store, who are not overtly hostile, though they are working towards that rapidly.

One is an older man, probably a military retiree, who has started to very loudly and forcefully call me Richard. See, I don't flinch and whine and bitch if someone uses my old name normally, it's the context with how they say it. I have no problem with my parents or family calling me my name, they don't do it to cause pain, it's just been my name to them forever.

This man however knew me as Rachel first, and now uses Richard in a tone as if the real word were 'faggot' or 'queer' and is simply using 'Richard' as a cover.

The second is a new guy, and what is up with him is not entirely confirmed yet, however according to a coworker he said "It better not hit on me" .

I'm not sure what to do yet, if anything. There has been no direct confrontation on either side, and I'm good at taking insults, I've dealt with it my entire life. I'm only going to be here for a few more months etc.

Introducing

2006-10-03T00:41:17Z

Rheoryn's Radical Retinue of Ridiculous Remixes, Remakes and Redos.

Otherwise, what I call my show when I do covers and such :)

I go live at 10PM EDT.

Less Than Three Music!