August 2011
73 posts
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“Oh, that’s so cute. Is your boyfriend a tuba player?”
– High school teacher to me, wearing a tuba shirt (I am the only female tuba player in the district). Made me feel devalued and belittled. First of all, I was offended by her assumption that I couldn’t play tuba because I was a girl. I often got comments indicating that people thought I was too small...
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Car Trouble
My thirteen-year-old Camry’s normal state is malfunction. When everything works and nothing falls off, I wait for the other shoe to drop. Lately, though, it has been worse. Its acceleration had always been good considering its age and relatively small engine. Just before the start of term, I noticed it struggling in on-ramps. That was less than two weeks ago. Now, I have to stomp on...
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“All in all, there’s a sense among many in metro Atlanta that transit is...”
– http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2011/08/30/transit-investment-a-necessity-for-metro-atlanta/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog
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“Reply” ≠ “Reply All”
Why is this a hard concept?
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“I am aspie, hear me lecture.”
– @hardaspie (via aspergersissues)
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Racing Concert Season
My little street band will play in public soon. MACB rehearsals start after Labor Day. Prime busking season, from when the heat breaks until the end of the Holidays, is on its way. School is a stop on the way to my intended career, like an airport terminal except that one is actually encouraged to engage fellow travelers and make friends. Tuba is living. Coursework must get out of the way...
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Employment Firm Sued After Applicant With... →
By Michelle Diament
May 20, 2011
The federal government is suing an employment agency with offices across the country alleging discrimination after a man with Asperger’s syndrome was denied a job shortly after disclosing his disability.
Jason O’Dell applied for work as a lab technician through a Randstad office in Frederick, Md. The company was initially quite interested in O’Dell, but...
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Questions
Why are there so many locks around Main?
How soon can Meldora tame my hair?
When I turn up at the theme house, what food should I bring?
When do rehearsals start?
Do I like biology?
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New Year
I slap on a smile for my former RA. I dredge up the right combination of phrases for a conversation with an acquaintance. It feels like trying to pull the right cards from a deck and scattering them on the floor. I keep up appearances. I would hate to become the talk of cafeteria tables. We all like to think of ourselves as better, but I hear it. If I let my guard down, I will be judged.
I...
Decade Late
An answered prayer,
A straggling latecomer, rests on the dying pen,
What lips of other lives once breathed
As if they could engrave it on the air.
I made peace with intermediary keys.
She coveted lines spitting sparks beneath tensed fingers,
Fading down through their colors like steel from the forge in her palms.
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LGBT Laughs: I was in Bojangles, which is a fast... →
lgbtlaughs:
I was in Bojangles, which is a fast food restaurant in the South, last night. I overheard a table over from me having this conversation. Keep in mind, everybody was well over 60 and had Southern accents.
Elder Lady: Ya know, Marie doesn’t exactly look like a boy, but Joyce says that’s what she…
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Quitting
I conditionally quit orchestra evading Dr. Solomon’s questions. “I would rather play for Six Flags” could be misconstrued as an insult. When I arrived, she was talking to the head of the department in her office. I stood in the auditorium lobby, glanced up at the old chandelier to kill time. They were laughing. These are nice people, I thought. I paced the tile without...
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The Most Powerful Poster on Books I've Ever Seen
sol-en-movimiento:
amycarr:unmaskd:
Just came across this. Apparently it’s been making rounds on the internet for a while, though no one seems to know the name of the artist. This is what books — real books — are written for.
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Social Media
There are a lot of things I have trouble explaining to Grandma. Most are generational and regional differences. Tuba would probably make sense to her. She abruptly went to college when she aced a eugenics-era intelligence test that was administered to her class half way through her senior year. She understands being catapulted into a new life at head-spinning speed. My hours on the Internet...
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“If you are a woman, if you’re a person of colour, if you are gay, lesbian,...”
– Margaret Cho (via fuckyeahfemmes)
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Gawking
I saw this on Facebook:
http://www.autismwonderland.com/2011/06/questions-are-welcome-staring-is-not.html
It reminds me of going to a pool with our out-of-town guests. We ran into autistic, teen brothers. One tall, dirty blond kid was non-verbal. He sat at the far end of the pool. The smallest kids went over. At first, we thought they were interacting him. I checked up on them a few...
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That Tuba Post
Earlier this week, my knee hurt enough to complicate walking and sitting. I shrugged it off. This is an inevitable part of what I do. I can handle a 4/4 BBb gracefully, carry an instrument through hell, and get her home in one piece. Over the last six years, that has shown me uncomfortably close contact with everything from falls to lightning.
Nothing in life is free. The instrument that has...
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Letter to the AJC
Ms. Gallant was right. Leave the vendors alone. Downtown and the area around Turner Field often look empty. Atlanta should encourage what commerce can gain a foothold there. Stripping merchants of their livelihood creates dependents of the social safety net. It will take life from streets that are already desolate. If we think their stands are ugly, why not create a volunteer program to fix...
Phosphenes n. the stars and colors you see when you rub your eyes.
Thank you. I have always wanted to know the word for those.
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“You know how vampires have no reflections in the mirror? If you want to make a...”
– Junot Diaz (via oddballsdontbounce)
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Guatemala mother searched 5 years for stolen... →
thecurvature:
Loyda Rodriguez Morales felt someone tug at her daughter as she tried to enter her simple home with three young children in tow. She turned to see a woman whisk the 2-year-old away in a waiting taxi. After nearly five years of searching, posting fliers, being turned away at orphanages and even staging a hunger strike, Rodriguez now holds what’s believed to be an unprecedented...
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“The average city plan is not designed for street performers, so it is their job...”
– Who wants a busking utopia?
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High School
I helped my sister with her homework last night. Almost every math problem she had worked was perfect. It was the Monday of her second week of ninth grade. At the kitchen table, she came to the realization of that most pointless phase of education: high school is stupid. She has never seen her parents or any other adult plot a line. She has no plans to work with data. Unless circumstance...
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Cuts
The AJC recently tried to show readers all the layers of government in the metro area. The map was color-coded and had a key over ten items long. I cannot post it because the AJC never did. They wanted to keep it away from non-subscribers. Made temporary dictator, I would consolidate it. Atlanta would annex everything. There would be a unified school district and tax code. If the city did...
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