I'm pro-choice because I believe a woman should be able to do whatever she damn well wants with her body, and she should be able to get one safely. Want to keep the baby? That's great. You're a far more patient woman than I. Want to get rid of it? That's fine, too. Some people aren't fit to become parents, some women have problems that reproduction would only worsen, so on and so forth. It's not my place--nor is it anybody else's--to tell a woman what to do with her body and whatever goes in or out of it.

It's especially not the business of rich old white men who have no idea of the circumstances of an individual woman.

Against abortion? Don't have one, then. Have your kid. That's great. But don't try to destroy this important right for other women who don't want the fetus. Adoption solves unwanted parenting; abortion solves unwanted pregnancy. And mind you, most women don't use abortion as a birth control method. A lot of women use protection that sometimes fails. Sometimes they're raped. The decision to have an abortion is a serious one--not one that's used all willy-nilly.

Being pro-choice doesn't mean you're pro-forced-abortions-for-all. My mother is pro-choice and she's had two kids... AND an abortion. Sibling X, in 1984, was about two months in when something went wrong and my mother was horribly ill. She had to have one of her ovaries snipped off, along with Sibling X. If she hadn't done it, there would be four of us not alive today--sibling X, my brother, me, and Mom herself.

I think abortion should be safely and freely available to all women who need or want one. Adoption doesn't solve everything. There are millions of kids wasting away in adoption agencies, foster homes, and orphanages waiting for someone to come and adopt them because their parents didn't want them or couldn't take care of them. But people keep having their OWN babies instead. Flooding the system with more and more kids isn't the answer.

I'm childfree. I never want kids. Ever. I don't want to bother with pregnancy or anything that comes with it. If I were to miraculously get pregnant, it would be off to the clinic for me. I have too much I want to accomplish in life that could not be accomplished with a kid in the way. My kid would be more than likely neglected; it's in their interest that they never exist so they won't have to feel such a terrible feeling.

Abortion should be available in a doctor's office, in a safe and sterile environment. They should not be things of shame, performed in a dank alley somewhere by a dirty man with a machete and a pair of salad spoons or with a bent-up wire hanger jammed into one's body. Keep it legal, keep it safe... and most importantly, if you don't like abortion, DON'T HAVE ONE, DAMMIT. Keep the option open for other women!

GREYFACE

In the year 1166 B.C., a malcontented hunchbrain by the name of Greyface, got it into his head that the universe was as humorless as he, and he began to teach that play was sinful because it contradicted the ways of Serious Order. "Look at all the order around you," he said. And from that, he deluded honest men to believe that reality was a straightjacket affair and not the happy romance as men had known it.

It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at that particular time, for absolutely no one thought to observe all the disorder around them and conclude just the opposite. But anyway, Greyface and his followers took the game of playing at life more seriously than they took life itself and were known even to destroy other living beings whose ways of life differed from their own.

The unfortunate result of this is that mankind has since been suffering from a psychological and spiritual imbalance. Imbalance causes frustration, and frustration causes fear. And fear makes for a bad trip. Man has been on a bad trip for a long time now.

It is called THE CURSE OF GREYFACE.

Looks like I won't be applying for a job at Camp Rockfish after all--they don't serve vegetarian meals.

Oh well. Sour grapes--they wouldn't want me to work there anyway. Imagine the things I'd be teaching those kids. "Backpacking to Berkeley 101." "The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman." "Manifestos, Creeds, Petitions, and Movements." "Meditation and Primal Drumming Exercises for the Wild-spirited Womyn." "Why Old Religious Traditions Just Aren't Making Any Progress: The New Age and Your Role In It." "Power to the People: Jesus' Socialist Leanings."

Yeah. I wouldn't be a very popular counselor.

I don't imagine that I'd be popular with my fellow counselors, either. I was never that popular at summer camp. I was the one who was always up for a four-mile hike through mud, a swim through dirty lake water, campfires sans marshmallows, and truly gruesome and disturbing ghost stories. Everybody else at my camp was interested in pedicures and other girly shit that I never cared for. So we'd always get stuck back at the tents and never get anything really COOL done. I'm still rather bitter about it.

No, I think I'll be better off taking my backpacking trip to the beach. Maybe I'll visit the Meher Center while I'm there this time.

I found out they're making a Bridge to Terabithia movie. It was always one of my favorite books--my favorite teacher ever (third grade, Mrs Beyers) recommended it to me. But it seems like they're making it into more of a fantasy movie. While the power of imagination and Leslie's free-spiritedness was a great part of the book, I always kind of thought the point was about how you couldn't escape from reality and focus on fantasy to avoid and evade every hurtful thing in life. While Jesse did learn a great deal about bravery from Leslie, he couldn't escape anymore without her.

I sort-of-kind-of doubt they'll kill her off in the movie. It's a Disney kids' movie, after all, and no good guy dies in Disney movies. Not that I can remember, at any rate. From the commercial and promo on the Disney channel that I've seen, it seems they're pursuing more of a fantasy angle to it--with tree-creatures, magic talking animals, and stuff.

I might go see it anyway, since I loved the book. Not sure, though.

Nyaa, I thought I'd finally found a forum full of kindred spirits at HipForums... but they're not. They put down peace and equality and instead rally under the banner of rudeness and anonymous Internet bitchery. I've been observing the forums and I haven't yet found a single person who bothers to promote peace and all of those other old-time hippie values. Some people start out that way on the Protest forum threads, but it all dissolves into "We can't do anything about it. Give it up." Which depresses me very severely.

I wonder if there's anywhere I fit today. I don't fit in in real life, so I looked for somewhere on the Internet to make friends... but I can't find them even there. I think maybe that's why I like music so much. If I listen to nutters like Pete Townshend and John Lennon pondering the same problems... then I don't feel so lonely. I feel like I've got someone who understands, even if I don't know them personally and never will.

I think it's also why I write so many stories and why I sleep so much. In my fantasies and dreams, I've got wonderful, accepting companions who, although they can be gruff or rude sometimes, generally hold up to the principles of peace, equality, and unity. When I sleep, I take these great adventures. While I can and do sometimes go on crazy adventures, I'm always alone in doing them. All I really want is to have these same crazy adventures... with someone who understands at my side. Lonely fulfillment is nothing fulfilling at all.

Maybe I'll go to California... perhaps to Berkeley or San Francisco. By the report from my Intarnetz-friend Hannah, Berkeley would be the perfect place for me. Maybe this March, I'll take my test-trip down to the beach, then I'll move on to bigger and better places... out to the west.

And even if I don't make any friends along the way, I'll at least be among kindred spirits who believe. That's all I want. I want to stop being around cynical, rude, bitter and jaded people who don't believe in anything anymore. That's part of my problem, I suppose--I believe too much and put far too much faith in friendship and love and hope.

You know, I think having super-elasticity as a power would suck.

Really--it would just make me lazy.

"Well, no reason to get up and go all the way into the kitchen. I can just reach that box of truffles from over here in the living room." Stre-e-e-e-tch. "Here we go. Truffles, come to Mama. Wait, I need some soda, too. Lots of soda. Fuck, the remote's broken, too. Oh well. I can do it all from right here on the couch."

All of the other powers I can think of, even useless ones like Flowerchild's or Glow Girl's, would make me feel like running off on an adventure to try and figure out the full extent of such a spiffy power.

But elasticity would just make me one lazy bitch. Or aspire for a career in softcore porno.

Also--imagine if your enemy was armed with an eggbeater or some gears or something. What if you got stuck in their Super Death Trap Machine of DOOM and got all caught in there, but wouldn't DIE because you would endlessly stretch and squish? I imagine that even if you had elasticity, you'd feel some kind of pain. Vast, mindblowing pain from being squished by spiky gears or an evil eggbeater or something.

Or if your enemy was another stretchy person and you were tied in a hopelessly complex Gordian knot with no way of escaping or untying yourselves? That would be a bitch, wouldn't it?

There would be a couple of bright sides. No need to get the ladder out of the shed to save that kitten in a tree. No need to fetch the plumber, since you could squeeze your hand down the pipe and get that clog out yourself.

But still.

I'd rather have a pointless power like Glow Girl's, or, hell, even Matter-Eater Lad's, instead of elasticity.

Who needs sleep, anyway?

I'm in the middle of a caffeine-fueled writing spree, having just devoured an entire box of chocolate-covered espresso beans. I may not need to sleep for another week.

Anyway, the bright side is, I've been making great progress on part II of the Working-Class Heroes story. Sophie, the Doctor, and Jake are just too fun to write.

In the original draft, all three of them went into a gas station to get some food after spending a very long time looking out for crime. They met up with three gunmen and easily pwned them.

Well, I didn't like the way their personalities were showing. So I fiddled around with it while completely rushed on the caffeine. Now I like this version better--Sophie goes in alone, meets with a lone criminal, attempts lone pwnage, and does it pretty well. She gets shot, but "the good thing about superstrength? Usually comes in a package deal with invulnerability." She picks the bullet out of her stomach and spends a few lines complaining about how hard it's going to be to wash out when her companions come and see what's going on.

In the original, they were quite cardboard. But I like the way they are now. Sophie is brave, but she's also reckless and impatient about charging the armed robber head-on. Jake is kind and sweet, but he also freaks out when the Doctor exhibits some of his abilities over the course of the chapter. The Doctor is calm and collected and bad-ass, except when he finds Sophie has been shot and doesn't seem to really notice that there is a BULLET in her BODY. (He came in while she was complaining to herself about how hard it would be to wash out.)

They seem more human in this draft. I like that.