Gabfest: And Thereby Hangs A Tail

'Smart' is never the criteria Vijima, passion and curiosity to learn and grow is all it takes, says the #UnofficialPRTeam here!

 

At the end of the year, the credit card company compiles the spending habits -- and points out how we had spent the money -- travel, pharma/medical, transportation, merch'-shopping, dining out, etc.. If IL were to compile where empathy, counsel, concern, advisories had been happening, the threads on Relationships would top, and all the rest would be distant also came-up issues.
In the LGBTQ (I prefer this rather than the abbr. with TB in the middle) related web discussions there are these anxieties:

1. the relitigation of the marriage-equality issue in the supreme court.
2. the cases in the immigration queue for immediate family (spouse) based immigration for LGBTQ persons who have same sex "alien" spouses, with I-130/I-485 in the system. Just as muslim-sounding names are delayed for deeper investigation in the home-country (aka extra-vetting), the LGBTQ suffer the same sorts of delays.​

We are a desi forum, and therefore immigration to forin is a thing that is close to home.

And then there is the issue of arranged marriages, relationships with the newly acquired relatives etc..

In one old (real life story) that I know of, all of these issues -- LGBTQ, arranged marriages, and immigration -- were intermingled:

This large state university was a pioneer and a forerunner in offering equality to LGBTQ students. Their married grad student housing was offered to those who "live in committed relationships" almost 10 years prior to the state adopting marriage-equality. All that a grad student applying for those very nice, a lot cheaper, conveniently on-campus located housing, was to actually be in a committed relationship with another person ( no need to be a registered student), and the two of them execute an affidavit to that effect and attach that to the application for housing. Then they go on the waiting list.

As these flats are so good, and cheap, compared to off-campus housing, two desi male students, bent on saving more money, decided to apply for that. And after some waiting, they got their keys, and took possession. Life of sharing a one bedroom flat with two mattresses on the floor was over. Separate rooms, more space, and less than half the expense.

They went on with their studies, got that MS, did practical training, went into h1b, and got their GC. And then one of them went home to interview the short-listed, at girl-dekko events. In such events, lots get talked about. Every family has links to forin, a cousin thrice removed would always belong to the Indian Student Association, or the Carnatic music society, or the Bollywood Film club...etc..and everybody's news is discussed and remembered.

Sadly for this NRI, his top 3 choices did background checks through their respective grapevines, and found out that the boy used to live in married student housing on campus. The kind of thing that cannot be explained away one way or the other.

Eventually he did marry someone, and she migrated after the requisite wait. And they live a frugal life, made babies, and doing well-enuf, I hear.

 

Hm. This is E&PG, we discuss here about immigrating to 'distant' Mars and making it 'closer' to our home in future.

 

Verdi begs to differ (!) - according to the Duke of Mantua, "per me pari sono ..." - women, they are all the same.

From: Rigoletto, Giuseppe Verdi (1851)
“Questa o quella” (Italian)

Questa o quella per me pari sono
a quant' altre d' intorno mi vedo,
del mio core l' impero non cedo
meglio ad una che ad altre beltà
La costoro avvenenza è qual dono
di che il fato ne infiora la vita
s' oggi questa mi torna gradita
forse un' altra doman lo sarà.
La costanza tiranna delcore
detestiamo qual morbo crudele,
sol chi vuole si serbi fedele;
Non v'ha amor se non v'è libertà.
De' i mariti il geloso furore,
degli amanti le smanie derido,
anco d' Argo i cent'occhi disfido
se mi punge una qualche beltà.

“Questa o quella” (English)

This girl or that girl - each equal
to the all the others I see around me,
the core of my being I will not yield
to one beauty or another -
their attractiveness is what they are gifted
from fate and embellishes life
Perhaps today this girl welcomes me
perhaps tomorrow another girl will demand me.
Constancy is a tyrant to the heart
it is a hated cruel disease to
only those who want you to be faithful;
There can be no love if there is no freedom.

A husbands’ jealous rage,
And lovers' woes I despise,
I defy the hundred eyes of Argo
if I fancy a few beauties.

 

Quelle horreur!

Let's see if you can hold up to my holding forth, doubly so. Keep the thread quick and kicking. I am interested in learning from that thread.

I am delinquent with homework and assignments though.

 

Dr. S:

WORRIES INVITED FOR EVER (WIFE) OR

WISDOM INVITED FOR EVER?

 

Someone reportedly having a brain the size of a planet cannot hide from your periscope even in his sheltered daycare, eh? I have read his articles in science magazines. Billy and Musk were stoked about this work. I was iffy whether to order The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil or SuperIntelligence, by Nick Bostrom.

The squinted eye roll has convinced me to go for Bostrom now. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

@sokanasanah , I want to try out Ulysses or Scrivener.

If I publish a write-up of 36 posts, each post summarising an episode of Descartes to Derrida using one of these tools, would that be a copyright infringement as the course warns "Any form of reproduction ...blah" disclaimer. But how would this summary be different from amazon review (legal). Wanted to ran past you before they take me away and lock up. Thoughts?

 

Hey Viswamitra, I've to skip puzzles for a while as I am tied up with various activities right now. Moreover, I want to keep my presence slim and not stray too much and focus on that Bulwer thread and anything that fancies me on those lines.

I get distracted too easily and usually run amok. Certain Bowlby has instilled in me focus, focus! the mantra of the season from a secure base. Have fun, see you around.

 

Summarize for whom? IL? As a philosophy thread?
Re: copyright etc., you could do it in a way that there's no infringement. A summary, as long as it's not an abridgment, should be OK. A review or an opinion piece is definitely OK.
Thirty-six essays is a lot of work. First, you need to figure out why and for whom you are doing this!