Cross-posted on my Facebook.

The thing with the "redefining" arguement is this. Words do mean things, as I have told my nephew time and again as he calls people on Xbox Live "gay" as an insult. Words have specific meanings, and one needs to keep their meaning in mind before flinging them around casually. When my nephew tries to claim that he is not insulting gay people, just using the word "gay" to mean "bad and stupid," I point out that there is no dictionary in the world that defines "gay" that way. In modern usage, "gay" generally means "homosexual."

That's the thing, though. In modern usage. Gay used to be a word that mean "happy," or, "merry." "Queer" used to mean "strange." And yet, today, if I refer to someone as gay or queer, no one assumes I mean they are happy or odd. Yes, somehow, by some inconcievable process called the EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE, the accepted definition of these words changed. Not only this, but these changes came about within cultural memory. In the Fifties, if I were to refer to my friend as "both gay and queer," a listener might think I was referring to a merry eccentric (which, to be fair, most of my gay friends are, but so are most of my straight friends). Just twenty years later, in the Seventies, if I were to refer to my friend the exact same way, I would be being redundant, and maybe a little offensive, as this was before the gay community reclaimed the word "queer." So the meanings of the words "gay" and "queer" changed, and look! Society hasn't collapsed! Maybe because taking words and verb tenses and conjugations and sentence construction from other languages and distorting it so that it's barely recognizable is what the English language has been widely know for SINCE ITS INCEPTION!

So why, WHY all the panic about redefining the word "marriage" to include same-sex couples? Why are some people so worried about changing the meaning of this ONE WORD when there is almost certainly not a single other word in the English language that remains precisely true to its original definition? Is it, perhaps, their favorite word? Do they not know that language evolves over time, due to maybe never having read any Shakespeare, or even Victorian literature, or ever having heard someone speak until they were fully-fledged adults?

Or maybe, just maybe, it's not about the word after all.

I swear to God I'm breaking out of my art funk! I really am!

It's just.

I can't color anything, because my tablet stylus broke, and my new ones haven't come in yet. I don't know why.

And even if they had come in, I can't get on my computer anyway, because the dogs chewed through the power cord and it was supposed to come two days ago but it still isn't here yet. So I'm on my sister's crappy work laptop. It doesn't even have Firefox. Life is worthless without Adblock Plus, guys.

I better be getting a bounty of packages today. Or else THE BURNINATING begins. Nobody wants that.

Well, maybe me. A little.

(Also I'm writing but I'm sure if you had any interest in what I've been writing I sent it to you already. XD)

A few Intertube friends and I have collaborated to form a fantabulous Hellsing RPG board!

WOOOOO--> [link] <--WOOOOO

Most canons are still open, original characters are welcome, and I'm playing Alucard, which anyone who has read my recent literary nonsnse will tell you, is probably a good thing. (I'm also playing OCs Prudence and Dolly, so there you are.)

GO PLAY WITH US

So there's apparently some kind of sub-movement thing to be all "unique" and junk with cars and other sorts of machines that are very nice but basically all look the same. Which is cool, I guess, because it's nice to have something shiny and nifty to break the monotony every once in a while, and who doesn't like to be the cool kid with the unique thingy that gets all the attention?

But wtf, why do car companies (and other companies of some kind but I can't remember any off the top of my head) seem to think that "unique" automatically translates to "so hideous there's a reason why it's not the mainstream"?

Oh hey, now I remember who else does this: scene kids. Not like the ones who can successfully coordinate an outfit of neons and wtfery so that it actually works, but the ones who just slap on some garish crap and take a lawnmower and skunk dye to their hair and head off to the mall, shouting "IRONY" the whole time as if it makes them look any less stupid.

But what set this off is cars. Like, that new car with the weirdo wrap around bubble window? Wtf is it called, it's the one with the cool commercial where the whole street moves under the car so it can get where it's going. Well, yeah. The commercial is cool, and if it could actually make that happen I might be able to overlook how ugly it was. It seems to be the latest in a line of hideous toaster-inspired cars like that Scion thing and, um. I don't know about cars. But I know there are a lot of really stupid-looking cars. I am pretty sure they all come with a really shiny paint job and a driver who probably needs to be punched in the face once or twice, for good measure.

I don't really have a conclusion here, I just kind of wanted to rant about the fug.

Are you KIDDING me, California?! You must be joking. This must be the most elaborate practical joke played by a legal system ever.

Because no one could seriously think that upholding Prop 8 is a good idea, aside from addled Godbags who are too busy being unChristlike to think clearly. Is that who's on the bench in California? IN CALIFORNIA OF ALL PLACES!?

You know, I don't really give a care what other people do with their own marriages. Open relationships, divorce, marriages of convenience, kinky S&M dynamics, I DON'T CARE. Just leave me the eff alone about my choices and I'll leave you the eff alone about yours.

So WHY is this such a hard concept for other people to grasp? Listen crazy straight people, NO ONE tried to legislate your marriage into nonexistence. No one is saying that any relationships you had are sleights against God. No one is poorly pretending they don't hate you while actively trying to take away your rights. No one is threatening your family and your lifestyle because it may disagree with their religion that you might not even subscribe to. (Personally, I'm an agnostic who loves, and likes to live by, that old Wiccan standby, "An it harm none, do what thou wilt," and you are quite clearly harming people, so can I bring some legislation about to prevent you from getting married?)

If you'll excuse me, I will be screaming furiously and punching pillows while pretending they are all the bigots I wish I could get my hands on.