>Blogging

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This is me lately. Not a lot to say, or motivation to say it. Tired and pain. My life so far.

I did have a nice birthday last week. A friend took me to lunch, then we did a bit of shopping and went for a ride. It’s spring, see the pretty flowering trees and shrubs? Yes. Yes we did.

Saturday I went to another friend’s house and stayed overnight. Birds, pine trees, talk, wine, shushi. Sunday was sitting on the deck, enjoying the sun and the breeze and the cardinals and other birds. Glorious Her husband came home Sunday afternoon with two rainbow trout he’d caught on his fishing trip. We had that and steak with fries for dinner. Steak, my favorite food. All in all, it was a really good weekend and I’m glad I was well enough to go. I have been recovering ever since, but it was worth it.

They say La Nina is causing the really terrible weather this country has been having, but what about the rest of the planet? Climate change is real, people. Be prepared.

I’ve been reading more than ever. A lot of fan fiction (Torchwood/Sherlock), but I also have the free Kindle app from Amazon on my computer, and bought some books and downloaded a bunch of free ones. I really like the Kindle app, so long as they don’t take down my books like they did last year for some users. I forget which book it was, but if you bought it, isn’t it yours? Not in the cyber-world, it seems. Nothing in the cyber-world actually belongs to you, I think. Interesting.

So I’m not in the best frame of mind I’ve ever been in, which means the humor is sadly lacking. I’ll feel better soon, though, she says confidently. LOL

>Angry and Sickened

>Crossposted to LJ

Posting the link, but also just the text because there are videos with commercials on the page.

abcnews.go.com/US/rutgers-roommate-charged-invasion-privacy/story

Text only:

By JESSICA HOPPER
April 20, 2011

A college student accused of secretly filming Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi having a same sex encounter in his dorm room just days before Clementi leapt to his death allegedly destroyed evidence and sent false tweets to try and throw off investigators, according to an indictment released today.

Dharun Ravi, a former Rutgers University student, was indicted on 15 counts including charges of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and tampering with evidence by a grand jury in Middlesex County, N.J. Prosecutors allege that not only did Ravi invade Clementi’s privacy, but he tried to cover it up.

Both Ravi and his alleged accomplice, former Rutgers student Molly Wei, are accused of filming Clementi during a “sexual encounter” in his dorm room with a man and then streaming it live on the Internet.

Evidence against Wei has not yet been presented to a grand jury.

Prosecutors allege that on Sept. 19 of last year, Ravi filmed Clementi with the purpose of intimidating him because of his sexual orientation.

Ravi “disclosed a photograph, film, videotape, recording or other reproduction of the image of [Clementi]…whose intimate parts were exposed,” the indictment reads.

When Ravi became worried about being charged with a crime, he sent false tweets in an attempt “to mislead a public servant who was engaged in such proceeding or investigation,” the indictment reads.

He also attempted to destroy tweets from his twitter feed, prosecutors allege. In addition, the indictment says that Ravi tried to convince other students to not testify against him.
PHOTO: Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi
Facebook; West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North/AP Photo
Former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi, right, shown in this West Windsor-Plainsboro High… View Full Size
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Clementi, an 18-year-old freshman, was so distraught after the streaming of the video, he jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River.

His family released a statement applauding the charges.

“The grand jury indictment spells out cold and calculated acts against our son Tyler by his former college roommate. If these facts are true, as they appear to be, then it is important for our criminal justice system to establish clear accountability under law. We are eager to have the process move forward for justice in this case and to reinforce the standards of acceptable conduct in our society,” said Jane and Joe Clementi in a statement.

Grand Jury Indictment in Rutgers Videotape Case

A talented violinist, Clementi grew up in the New Jersey suburb of Ridgewood, where friends who knew him reeled from his sudden death.

Messages on social networking sites left by Ravi suggest that he may have had an aversion to Clementi’s sexuality from the start of their freshman year.

Ravi tweeted on Aug. 22, “Found out my roommate is gay,” according to Forbes.com, and then posted a link to a gay men’s website where Ravi said Clementi had placed posts.

Gawker reported it was that same website, JustUsBoys, that Clementi was believed to have turned to once he found out that Ravi had secretly filmed Clementi’s sexual encounter with another man.

“So my question is what is next,” the posted cti2mo, believed to be Clementi, wrote on Sept. 21. “I could just be more careful next time … make sure to turn the cam away.”

In the same post, “I’m kind pissed at him (rightfully so I think, no?)”

Since Clementi’s death, a message reading “in loving memory” appears next to the handle “cit2mo.”

A Twitter page that appears to have been operated by Ravi but has since been taken offline shows messages in which the accused student takes credit for the alleged videotaping of Clementi.

Ravi apparently tweeted about his roommate on Sept. 19 before live streaming Clementi’s sexual encounter, writing, “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”

And two days later, another message went out to Ravi’s 148 Twitter followers: “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again.”

The next day, a chilling post from Clementi showed up on his Facebook page. He wrote in a message dated Sept. 22 at 8:42 p.m., “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”

ABC News’ Emily Friedman contributed to this report.

>I guess I’m crazy

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Because I cannot understand the people who voted for these Republicans. Might as well stick your own hand in the meat grinder, for as much benefit as your going to get from right-wing tea-party conservatives. Is it just me? http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/04/15/6478241-gop-abandons-political-middle-democrats-happy-to-move-in

>Spring

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I know I haven’t posted in a while. Just haven’t had anything to say, really. I had some good days interspersed over a week, then a lot more pain mixed with a few less pain days, and in general I’ve been kind of in a funk. It’s spring, and life is passing me by. Of course, life is always passing me by, but it’s spring. I want to participate.

Had some laptop issues, yet again, and I could not fix them. Nothing I tried worked. So I moved everything to Dropbox and did a restore to factory settings, which is pretty neat. I didn’t even know you could do that, but I was looking around for solutions and came across it. Apparently, Dell has a partiton with the original settings and you just follow the directions and Damn, there it is, good as new. I love this stuff. Of course there were 73 Windows updates, but it didn’t take THAT long. LOL So now I am slowly adding back my stuff: Amazon Kindle, Winamp, VLC, and putting back my pictures and things from Dropbox. Playing on the computer is about the only thing I do that doesn’t hurt or wear me out.

I think the trees across the street are going to open their blooms tomorrow or the next day. My favorite part of spring.