I’ve been reading more than I’ve been reading lately. And yes, I am rarely political, but here comes the second post with that sort of content. In a row. Go me. In fact, I just need somewhere to collect a few links of stories that I feel is awesome. More writing another time, maybe. Until then, read something…

A high school in California elected a openly gay boy as prom queen. He decided to go for the queen rather than king because it suited his personality better. And the story puts some really great thinking in mainstream media, like for example:

“I think that indicates where our society is right now. That the young people, they are not involved in this whole argument about gay rights. They think this whole fight is silly. They just accept people for who they are.”

This makes me insanely happy.

Interview with Jessica Clark, who is a model. She’s very frank about it, and says stuff like:

AE: So, that vacuous, hollow expression you see on runway models’ faces is actually because they’re seconds away from passing out?

JC: Oh my God, totally. I’ll tell you what it is, no joke. People say, “Oh, you people are so bitchy and vacant” and whatever. And I’m like: “They’re hungry. They’re hungry and tired and they don’t know what you’re talking about because they can’t think straight because they haven’t eaten for a month.”

Elin writes beautifully about the difference of eating disorders and what our society thinks is normal hi-I’m-girl-and-25-of-course-I’m-dieting here. In Swedish, sorry. Because, yeah, sometimes it is really hard to tell the difference.

There is a female Supreme Court nomine in the U.S. This is not so much news as some of the things the conservatives are saying to prove that she is in fact a poor choice. One of them has to do with, um, hoping that the key conferences aren’t taking place while she’s on her period. There is also a political cartoon depicting her as Obama’s own little piñata. Yes. Seriously.

One of three (yes seriously) doctors in the US to provide late abortions for women with severely troubled pregnancies have been murdered. In his church. An article on what has happened previously is kind of… scary reading, to say the least. And, yeah, late abortions are a stigma, and one of my best friends was born at 26 weeks. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be available. It’s not like any woman would cheerfully have an abortion at 16-18-20 weeks and up. A world where this is available in those awful situations where you have no other choice, though? That is a world I’d be comfortable living in.

Also, this post by a lawyer who is helping teens get abortions without parental consent is amazing.

I also educated a friend on these organisations in the U.S., who mask themselves as abortion providers, and keep giving women information designed to make them keep the baby. Sometimes they actually keep prosponing your appointments with them so that you, by the time you realise they are scamming you, can no longer safely have an abortion. Yeah. It happens. I’ve seen the ads in the phonebook. It makes me want to stab things.

And yes, it’s hard to understand that these things are, in fact, considered normal. Then again I had a friend being completely and utterly stunned by my story about vårdcentralen only taking emergency cases over the summer, and even more so by the fact that I’m not considered one. It’s true. In Sweden the world stops in the summer. It’s always been that way and will probably always be that way. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck, though.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the links.

Something I’ve learned over the last year is to let writing rest. This is tricky stuff; if you wait for too long you never go back to it, and if you go back to it too soon you are very likely to run out of steam and collapse in a heap.

Collapsing in a heap is never recommended unless you have company. Then you can get a cuddle out of it, which is all kinds of awesome.

I’m just now re-reading and doing a bit of editing on my NaNo-novel, and I’m frequently going “huh, this is… not bad?” Which, have you attempted to write your heart out for thirty days in a row, is always a bit of a surprise.

And some time I’ll actually finish it. I hope.

I’m looking for a job. A real talking-to-other-human-beings-and-be-nice-to-them-job. As it turns out, having one of those is essential to be able to pay one’s rent and other pesky bills. I am not entirely sure that I can handle it, but I’m also sure that giving up on these things and returning home, which is what my family would like me to do, would be the absolutely worst thing to do.

It’s very tempting to take one of the offers of housing and working abroad. You know me, every few months I want to flee the country, because it doesn’t feel like mine anymore. And while that would be an amazing experience, I’m sure, I kind of feel like I need to land. Put both feet down and learn to stand tall. I’ve been drifting my whole life. It’s what I do. But it makes you kind of tired after a while.

Really fucking tired.

Okay, so I made it. In fact, all four of my friends that did NaNoWriMo made it as well. One of them wrote the last 25k in less than a week, and finished with one hour to go. She so wins the mad typing award in my book. I am still working on my novel. I have no idea how it will it (if it will end), but at least I got the first 50k down!

Also, I need a job. Like yesterday. Possibly I should finish my resume and actually apply for some. I haven’t had a real one for six years, and I feel a bit like Bambi on that damn ice. It’s a bit depressing really, still not having much of anything to put on a resume.

Best blog entry ever (in Swedish, sorry loves!) was written here. So true. It talks about how she knows that she has a body that men wants to fuck, and that she’s tired of it. It makes me want to cuddle from afar.

Eighteen days until family time. Eighteen days people! Where did November go? Oh, right. NaNo.