raybear | But I don't want to be an investment banker.

Is your friends page not updating often enough with high quality reading material because everyone is out of the office or taking a livejournal break? Well, you're in luck because there's some quality stuff out there I'm willing to share.

limenal writes about her research on the debilitating effects of caffeine.

vfc writes about accidentally becoming the other woman and having a fabulously dramatic dream starring yours truly.

trooper6 posts his essay about transmen in women's colleges.

On my way back from a great lunch with

thebrownhornet ("Cheers!"), I walked through the Federal Plaza to view up close an exhibit on the persecution of the Falun Gong in China.

dommeyourass and I were watching a local news story about it last night which was (unfortunately for us) on the korean channel with no closed captioning. Next to the display of pictures and articles, there were actual people re-enacting the tortures, which was pretty brutal and realistic and jarring to witness. Behind them were thirty people sitting on the ground, cross-legged, meditating (or something similar in nature). Behind them were dozens of others on a lunch break, I'm assuming they are rotating in and out the performers so no one has to be genuinely tortured. Their exhibit/performance/demonstration took up half of the plaza in front of the post office. Click here for a website, as I claim no expertise on the issue.

Off to the corner was another demonstration. At first I thought it was some counter-group, some white christians claiming that there were no humans rights abuses in China but that they Falun Gong should repent and love only Jesus or something equally bizarre. No, instead it was about twenty people, half of them teenagers, looking white, suburban, and sullen, avoiding eye contact with passers-by, holding up hand-made signs saying "One Man + One Woman = Common Sense", "I love my mom & dad", "I DO support the Federal Marriage Amendment", and my favorite "Honk if you support the Federal Marriage Amendment" (I heard no honking while there). Seeing this ragtag group of privileged protestors with their neon posterboard hand-written sign seeming extremely concerned about their lives being ruined, next to the bloodied actors and descriptions of people being killed and persecuted just made those heterosexuals seem even more ridiculous than usual.