In New York Times today:

Project Implicit, a virtual laboratory maintained by Harvard, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia, has administered hundreds of thousands of online tests designed to detect hidden racial biases. In tests taken from 2000 to 2006, they found that three-quarters of whites have an implicit pro-white/anti-black bias. (Blacks showed racial biases, too, but unlike whites, they split about evenly between pro-black and pro-white. And, blacks were the most likely of all races to exhibit no bias at all.) In addition, a 2006 study by Harvard researchers published in the journal Psychological Science used these tests to show how this implicit bias is present in white children as young as 6 years old, and how it stays constant into adulthood.

(You can take the test yourself.)
 

The project in fact tests for several kinds of biases, including straight/gay one. I took that test--and got this assessment:

Your data suggests:
Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for Gay People compared to Straight People.

WOW! And I do not even have close gay friends in real life. I am sure before BBM and slash on daily basis my results would have been very different.

Hello everybody,

It has been a long while since you last saw me commenting on any of your posts. My family was going through some tough times: in the spring my grandmother passed away after a long illness, and I had to go help my mother through it, and ended up staying for the summer, as her own health took a turn for the worse, because of all the stress, and she was in and out of hospital for months. I did check on you guys now and then, but internet is still a rarity where she lives, and even when I did manage to get to it, I was too rushed and too bummed to read and comment.

Now that my mother is out of danger and I am back to the land of unlimited internet, I am looking forward to reading all your back posts, though it would probably take me a while to catch up, what with all the piles of work and other RL stuff that got accumulated while I was away.

Thank you for keeping me on your friends' lists. I missed you and your stories very much and am looking forward to reconnecting with our wonderful fandom.

I hope all is well with you and yours.

M.

Well, as you probably know, Jake is in Toronto these days promoting “Rendition.” The film is shown at two gala events, today and tomorrow. So this afternoon found me in a front row of the eager crowd waiting at the barrier at the first gala venue hours in advance of the show.

His Jakiness arrived with his handlers last but one, a few minutes before Reese, and right away headed towards the fan crowd. He seemed his usual sweet and dorky self, walking along the barrier back and forth, smiling and signing autographs. At one (fleeting!) moment he was within a meter from me!! (Be still, my heart...) And although he passed by the BBM postcard proffered by my trembling hand, I do not hold that against him. The festival is not over yet; maybe I’ll catch him again.
 

Then for like fifteen minutes I was swooning staring at his back while he was talking to the press, some ten meters away. And did he take his time to answer what seemed like multiple questions of every correspondent in that line.

 
All in all he spent about three times as long as Reese did signing autographs and talking to the press. I thought it was sweet of him.

 
When he finally went inside, I got out of the crowd. More than three hours after I had got there, somewhat battered for all the jostling and hoarse for all the screaming.

 
But it was totally worth it. 

 

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

 

Over the past weekend, I reread the few Maggie's works I have saved. They never fail to awe and deeply move me. 

( Read more... )

Come in, friends. Cherries are still in season, so a cherry cake is waiting for you, and coffee will be ready in a moment. Let us sit in the shade for a spell.



I should warn you that I may not be able to entertain you as often and as long as I would like to: the livestock requires care, and I do not get much help here. But from time to time I will drop you a line about what is going on with me and my ranch. In the meantime, I am looking forward to seeing you all, as before, on the pages of many Brokeback Mountain fanfic journals, to which I devote whatever little time I can spare from my chores.

Thank you for dropping by; it was a pleasure having you over.

P.S. This is my first journal entry ever; it took me only three months to arrive at this point :D