Dunk you under

puddleofglass @ 2006-08-25T00:20:00

2006-08-25T04:28:57Z

¿Saben Uds. de mi otro lj? Se llama reigned. Lo uso para practicar español y aleman. En el futuro, escribiría en japonés, pero no sé si va a pasar.

Wisst ihr, das ich habe andere lj? Es heißt reigned. Ich benutze für schreiben auf Deutsch und Spanisch. Ich will auch auf Japanisch schreiben, aber ich weiß nicht, ob es werde passieren.

puddleofglass @ 2006-07-04T20:42:00

2006-07-05T00:43:14Z

He held an opponent's wife's hand... NWS?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc9y5ayeeb4

This is the furthest I'll go to celebrate today.

He'll save children, but!

puddleofglass @ 2006-06-29T00:35:00

2006-06-29T04:40:34Z

Why, the Goblin Shark, of course!

Its liver can take up a quarter of its weight. Scientists are still trying to figure that out.

Sweet dreams!

puddleofglass @ 2006-06-06T23:20:00

2006-06-07T03:22:04Z

What the hell. Something Awful's awful link of the day
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2116072813466344448&q=rowby

I guess I never realized how easily you could mess up the concept of a kids' show. Mr Rogers made it look like a breeze. But the other guy made me laugh more =/

puddleofglass @ 2006-05-14T02:16:00

2006-05-14T02:16:33Z

http://www.avirginsplea.com/

What is the world coming to?

puddleofglass @ 2006-03-22T11:17:00

2006-03-22T17:23:11Z

Child Bride
Posted by Kevin Sites
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs2986

Married at the age of four, an Afghan girl was subjected to years of beatings and torture, finally escaping to discover that within all the world's cruelty, there is also some kindness.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Eleven-year old Gulsoma lay in a heap on the ground in front of her father-in-law. He told her that if she didn't find a missing watch by the next morning he would kill her. He almost had already.

Enraged about the missing watch, Gulsoma's father-in-law had beaten her repeatedly with a stick. She was bleeding from wounds all over her body and her right arm and right foot had been broken.
She knew at that moment that if she didn't get away, he would make good on his promise to kill her.

* * *

When I meet her at the Ministry of Women's Affairs I'm surprised that the little girl, now 12, is the same one that had endured such horrible suffering. She is wearing a red baseball cap and an orange scarf. She has beautiful brown eyes and a full and animated smile. She takes one of my hands in both of hers and greets me warmly, without any hint of shyness.

"She looks healthy," says Haroon, my friend and translator. I nod. But she looks older than her years, we both agree. In orphanages — first in Kandahar, then in Kabul — she has had a year to recover from a lifetime's worth of unimaginable imprisonment, deprivation and torture.

In one of the ministry's offices she sits in a straight-backed wooden chair and tells us the story of her life so far. She is stoic for the most part, pausing only a few times to wipe her eyes and nose with her scarf.

Her story begins in the village of Mullah Allam Akhound, near Kandahar.

"When I was three years old my father died, and after a year my mother married again, but her second husband didn't want me," says Gulsoma. "So my mother gave me away in a promise of marriage to our neighbor's oldest son, who was thirty."

"They had a ceremony in which I was placed on a horse [which is traditional in Afghanistan] and given to the man."

Because she was still a child, the marriage was not expected to be sexually consummated. But within a year, Gulsoma learned that so much else would be required of her that she would become a virtual slave in the household.

At the age of five, she was forced to take care of not only her "husband" but also his parents and all 12 of their other children as well.

Though nearly the entire family participated in the abuse, her father-in-law, she says, was the cruelest.

"My father-in-law asked me to do everything — laundry, the household chores — and the only time I was able to sleep in the house was when they had guests over," she says. "Other than that I would have to sleep outside on a piece of carpet without even any blankets. In the summer it was okay. But in the winter a neighbor would come over and give me a blanket, and sometimes some food."

When she couldn't keep up with the workload, Gulsoma says, she was beaten constantly.

"They beat me with electric wires," she says, "mostly on the legs. My father-in-law told his other children to do it that way so the injuries would be hidden. He said to them, 'break her bones, but don't hit her on the face.'"

There were even times when the family's abuse of Gulsoma transcended the bounds of the most wanton, sadistic cruelty, as on the occasions when they used her as a human tabletop, forcing her to lie on her stomach then cutting their food on her bare back.

Gulsoma says the family had one boy her age, named Atiqullah, who refused to take part in her torture.

"He would sneak me food sometimes and when my mother-in-law told him to find a stick to beat me, he would come back say he couldn't find one," she says. "He would try to stop the others sometimes. He would say 'she is my sister, and this is sinful.' Sometimes I think about him and wish he could be here and I wish I could have him as my brother."

One evening, Gulsoma says, when her father-in-law saw the neighbor giving her food and a blanket, he took them away and beat her mercilessly. Then, she says, he locked her in a shed for two months.

"I would be kept there all day," she says, "then at night they would let me go the bathroom and I would be fed one time each day. Most of the time it was only bread and sometimes some beans."

She says every day she was locked in the shed, she wished and prayed that her parents would come and take her away. Then she would remember that her father was dead and her mother was gone.

But Gulsoma had an inner strength even her father-in-law couldn't comprehend.

"When he came to the shed he kept asking me, 'Why don't you die? I imprisoned you, I give you less food, but still you don't die.'"

But it wasn't for lack of trying. Gulsoma said when her father-in-law finally let her out of the shed, he bound her hands behind her back and beat her unconscious. She says he revived her by pouring a tea thermos filling with scalding water over her head and her back.

"It was so painful," she says, dabbing her eyes with her scarf and sniffling for a moment. "I was crying and screaming the entire time."

Five days later, she says, her father in law gave her a vicious beating when his daughter's wristwatch went missing.

"He thought I stole it," she says, "and he beat me all over my body with his stick. He broke my arm and my foot. He said if I didn't find it by the next day, he would kill me."

* * *

She crawled away that night and hid under a rickshaw. When the rickshaw driver found Gulsoma, broken and bleeding, he listened to her story and took her to the police. She was hospitalized immediately.

"The doctor at the hospital who treated me said, 'I wish I could take you to the village square and show all the people what happened to you, so no one would ever do something like this again,'" Gulsoma says.

It took her a full month to recover from her last beating. But the fear and psychological trauma may never go away.

"I was happy to have a bed and food at the hospital," she says. "But I was thinking that when I get better they will give me back to the family."

However, Gulsoma says when the police questioned the family, the father-in-law lied and tried to tell them she had epilepsy and had fallen down and hurt herself. But the neighbor who had helped Gulsoma confirmed the story of her beatings and torture.

The police arrested her father-in-law and "husband." They told her, she says, they would keep them in jail unless she asked for their release.

"Everyone was crying when they heard my story," Gulsoma says.

Gulsoma says she stayed at an orphanage in Kandahar, but was the only girl in the facility. Eventually, her story was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
Gulsoma was then brought to a Kabul orphanage, where she lives today. She takes off her baseball cap and shows us a bald spot, almost like a medieval monk's tonsure, on the crown of her head where she was scalded.

She then turns her back and raises her shirt to reveal a sad map of scar tissue and keloids from cuts, bruises and the boiling water.

Haroon and I look at each other with disbelief. Her life's tragic story is etched upon her back.

Yet she continues to smile. She doesn't ask for pity. She seems more concerned about us as she reads the shock on our faces.

"I feel better now," she says. "I have friends at the orphanage. But every night I'm still afraid the family will come here and pick me up."

Gulsoma also says that when the sun goes down, she sometimes begins to shiver involuntarily — a reaction to the seven years of sleeping outdoors, sometimes in the bitter cold of the desert night.

She says she believes there are other girls like her in Kandahar, maybe elsewhere in Afghanistan, and that she wants to study human rights and one day go back to help them.

As we walk outside to take some pictures, I ask her if, after all she's been through, she thinks it will be harder to trust, to believe that there are actually good people in the world.

"No," she says, quickly.

"I didn't expect anyone would help me but God. I was really surprised that there were also nice people: the neighbor, the rickshaw driver, the police," she says. "I pray for those who helped release me."

Looking directly into the camera, she smiles as if nothing bad had ever happened to her in her entire life.

"I think that all people are good people," she says, "except for those that hurt me."

Do you like to read?

2006-01-11T03:20:01Z

Then buy this book, in one form or another.
http://www.lulu.com/content/215997

locks of love

2005-09-17T16:28:59Z

Hair Donors

This made me cry today. Look at all of the little girls. As soon as my hair grows another few inches, it's getting cut just like that. If you want to cry too, it helps to have really pretty music playing.

I even think it would be cute to start some kind of a ...group here or something. And maybe every year, a whole group of kids here can go to get their hair cut to be donated. It would be so cute.

EDIT: It's long enough to donate now!! Meaning thirteen inches past my chin. I'm so excited. If there are any short styles you think I should consider, post examples or sites of pics, etc. Ahh... this is delightful!!

puddleofglass @ 2005-09-03T22:53:00

2005-09-04T03:55:08Z

***Not a cut***, just a banner...

PS, I really don't know 1337 so much...

@ |_ 7 || 0 C- |-|   1   7 ]2 '/

puddleofglass @ 2005-07-04T14:36:00

2005-07-04T18:37:43Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4649007.stm

The silliness and drama is everywhere...

And that is somewhere between the Middle English and modern day definition.

puddleofglass @ 2005-06-21T14:11:00

2005-06-21T18:05:11Z

HOLY HOLY HOLY FREAKIN' TOMORROW!!

I cannot cannot CANNOT wait!!!!

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

ahhhhhhearts

2005-06-20T19:45:22Z

SNAKE

You snake
You crawled
Between
My legs
Said "Want
It all
It's yours
You bet

"I'll make
You queen
Of Eve-
rything
No need
For god
No need
For him

"Just take
My hand
You'll be
My bride
Just take
That fruit
Put it
Inside"

You snake
You dog
You fake
You liar
I've burned
My hands
I'm in
The fire

Oh
Oh

You salty dog
You filthy liar
My heart
It aches
I'm in
The fire
You snake
I ain't
Untrue,
Believe
Put rot-
ten fruit
Inside
of me

Oh Adam please
You must
Believe
That snake
Put it
In front
Of me
That snake
Put it
In front
Of me
In front
Of me

Ahhhhh - - <33333333333!!!! I even made my mom listen to it, but it didn't make her dance. It is amazingly energizing - - hearts hearts hearts!

PS I love this song.

fame

2005-05-29T15:46:32Z

I can move matter with my mind. Challenge me.

arggh!!

2005-05-22T16:02:52Z

People really really really need to learn how to parent. It's driving me insane.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4570201.stm

She took him at three thirty in the morning because he couldn't sleep? Exercise some discipline! Plus, since she took him to Walmart, it's pretty apparent what type of person she is. And she's pregnant. This story just about ruined my day. Oh man.

miss yoko

2005-05-18T02:32:53Z

So I had another crazy dentist appointment at the early early time of 6: 30. So I was reading some kind of fashion magazine or another, and - - Yoko Ono- - so I flipped to the page.

She is 71. I am the inverse. She is in better shape than I am.

I turned to my mom "What do you think I'll look like when I'm seventy-one?"

"Like Gramma."

I crumpled.

oh lizzie!

2005-05-17T20:44:36Z

DISBELIEVE++ ME; KNOW FRIEND GROUP ARRIVE=here, TRUE EXCITED, GO-OUT EATa, CHAT++ WILL THEY!

hygge

2005-05-17T03:49:23Z

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/community/fun/entry_124.shtml

Let's get hygge
Danish people are very proud of the word hygge which is both unpronounceable by other speakers and untranslatable into other languages and apparently sums up all Danish-ness.
It means 'comfortable' in a social sense. Think of you and loved ones snuggling up in front of a fire when it's snowing inside. That's very hygge!

...If it weren't for the fact that it's unpronouncaeable by native speakers, I'd be all about assimilating this word.

puddleofglass @ 2005-05-12T20:47:00

2005-05-13T00:47:45Z

Do you know what? I'm still kinda sad about Chris Reeve. Who else was totally convinced that he'd walk again?

That's all.

i think i'm getting sick...

2005-05-11T19:23:54Z

...because for the past two days, my left nostril has been lubricating itself with snot. I ate salt to dry up my system so that my nose wouldn't drip, but now my right nostril is bleeding so it isn't dry.

Plus I'm tired. But a nap should be good. I think I'll go take one now, after my snack-which-is-so-big-it's-really-a-meal.

love terry

2005-05-08T13:19:49Z

I'm pretty sure all of you have seen this, just because I always find out about everything last. But on the off chance, I wanted to share it with you. There are 120 pages, but it doesn't take that long to click through.

http://www.lostfrog.org/

Also, check out this cartoon, which is pretty good times. It made me sweat bullets.

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2708

let's have a party someday

2005-05-08T00:46:58Z

http://www.mbinde.com/games/telephone-pictionary/

I think it sounds like fun. Who'd like to join me?

hello, i'm a mathematician

2005-05-07T03:02:33Z

...because I made up a number. It's a very deceptive, sly number, because it can't be written in digits with the same zeal.

Eightee'five'

Which, of course, is short for "eighteen fives"... and I've never felt much like calculating what that would be, somewhere around one ninety, I guess.

Oh where have I come to that this merits an entry? I'm going to bed soon.

ahh - -

2005-04-26T19:21:05Z

Ahh - - Yahoo has new PJ Harvey videos - - but all of the compies have linux now, and so are difficient. Disappointment!! Ahh - - you should watch them anyway.

random comic generator v2.0

2005-04-23T03:12:01Z

Random Comic Generator v2.0 by Delya
Nickname
Paper or plastic?
panel 1
panel 2
panel 3

Quiz created with MemeGen!

in addition to that:

2005-04-22T06:15:01Z

I had my Red Raincoat on yesterday. And someone reminded me that I needed to get boots.

"Yeah," I said. "Yellow ones."

Owemahgahd - - Red Raincoat + yellow boots + green stripey looks-like-blue's-clues shirt = One of my fascinating obsessions.

I think this is like my fifth entry in which I mention or allude to a Stop Light Party.