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Didn’t do a whole lot today, but that’s okay - I got the important things done. And I don’t have class tomorrow, so there’s no rush, really. Tomorrow, maybe I’ll see if I can’t do some fun wizardry here and there and possibly finish up the non-graded assignment.
Holy cow... it’s the Eiffel Tower made out of matchsticks. With lights, as well. That must have taken quite some time. And we hope that when it’s destroyed, it’s by someone lighting the matches and watching it burn down. Possibly while playing the anthem of the French Revolution, if such a thing existed.
India's joining the space race - and needs a name for their intrepid explorers. Things brings to mind a future where Sol never sets on the Indian Empire... but they’ll have to pass the preliminaries first. Getting someone up into space and orbiting around the Earth, and possibly a manned Luna mission. As I have theorized myself at times, though, extraterrestrial life could very well be out there - we may just not be smart enough to notice. Although, if the Open University study turns out to be true, life on Earth may have arrived from Mars.
Even though the exhortations from our doctors say we should drink more water than we do now - with soda and other drinks being potentially unhealthy, there can be too much water in your diet, as a woman proved by dying from water poisoning. Mind you, it took a lot, and part of the contest involved was to hold it in rather than excrete it, so that probably contributed to the problem. All for a video game system, though.
The formatting is difficult for someone who likes clean paragraph breaks, but the gist of this letter is someone is trying to defend America as the best nation, but is losing the argument as time goes on. They would like it if any excuse at all could appear that would let them continue to defend America as a liberal democratic country with justification for the mess being made. At the moment, my best response is that it’s not going to happen with the current bunch in charge. Wait a few decades and see if it’s possible to say “American democracy” and it reflect the government in power.
The media, however, already seems intent on linking possible Presidential candidate Barack Obama to as many people against the Bush Administration as possible. The latest, a weak attempt at best, comes from CNN's Jeff Greenfield, who compares Obama's fashion sense to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran. All together now. One, Two, Three. Lame!. And now, in your best Syndrome voice: Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame! The media is already trying to skewer Obama with whatever they can put their hands on. Liberal media, my tailscales.
There was an uptick in samurai honor a few days ago, where a gentleman with a sword assisted police officers outnumbered in a raid. There’s very little detail, as the man vanished before information could be got about him. Metro.co.uk has more on the sword-wielding hero, as well as a caution against vigilante behavior. It would be rather strange to prosecute someone for assisting police in such a way. Of course, the gent was probably putting himself in serious harm’s way, but I don’t think he’d be breaking any concealment laws. On the other end of the spectrum, a different gent swinging a sword about was shot with a rubber bullet by police. Apparently, swords are now popular in the United Kingdom, both for aiding and for requiring the police.
(NYTimes) California takes a bold step and outlines a health care plan for everyone in the state. It’ll get employers to offer insurance, expand the state’s safety-net eligibility, tax doctors and hospitals percentages to be put back into the insurance fund, and force insurance companies to spend 85 percent of their premiums on health care services. The Governator might make something work out here, assuming his legislators go along with it. That could be the big problem.
In the randomness that crosses my desk daily, I single out this particular expression, not because I think it’s wrong, or because it seems to express one side of an equation, but because of the question it asks. One of Every Woman is a Goddess's commentators answers "Would you rather have been a man?" in the negative, and uses the reasoning of things like wearing soft underwear, breastfeeding children, and being the receptive one for sex. And then, she asks the wider community, “What does being a woman mean to you?” In that question, I think, there are lots of great answers and a large amount of wisdom. Turning the question around for men produces equally important wisdom, I’d say. We could probably learn a lot about each other and about the state of a nation from answering that kind of question. So I’ll pose it to the readership. What does being a man/woman/transgender being mean to you?
For me, at it’s most basic, being a man means that I have a Y chromosome. And with that came all thee assorted sexual equipment that develops. More conceptually, though, being a man means I have to deal with what other people think of me all the time. It means that I have to deal with women told that I am a rapist, because “all men are rapists”, in one way or another, regardless as to whether I commit a sexual assault. I have to deal with the assertion that “real men don’t cry”, and that only men who are somehow less than adequate express sadness through tears. I have to deal with the contention that I am responsible for the oppression of many, simply because I am a man, and that I will have an easier life than others, because I am a man. I must deal with the assertion that somehow, my worth to others is measured in athletic prowess, sexual ability, physical strength, or the salary that I earn. Being a man has its share of problems. As does being a woman, or being a transgendered being. At the same time, being a man does have occasional advantages - I have a relatively standardized language for clothing , for one. Sizes are basically the same, regardless of manufacturer. Being a man does mean that clothing designed for minimal coverage is an exception, not a rule. Being a man means that I can do a really good ape impression without trying too hard. Being a man does mean the onset of body hair and the deepening of voice. (I still can’t sing worth a damn, though.) Being a man does mean humor involving objects hitting sensitive spots and what results. Occasionally, said humor is actually funny. Being a man mans that sometimes I play coatrack, and other times I play the strong, silent type to someone I’m escorting. (Generally, though, the person that I’m escorting is far more vicious than I am.) Or maybe that’s just being tall. In any case, there are some good bits involved from being male, but the majority of my good things come from being me, and those probably wouldn’t change much, regardless of whether I was man, woman, intersex, transgender, or anything else. I’m not the kind of man who’s all for beer, steak, potatoes, football, and a totally subservient woman at my beck and call. I’d probably get kicked in the nuts if I tried something like that. But I have to deal with all the people who are like that, and all the previous people who worked hard to build the stereotype of masculinity to the boorishness that it is today.
Anyway, that’s what it is for me, in a slightly-longwinded manner. Now, I’m going to bed. I really should actually do some work tomorrow.
Holy cow... it’s the Eiffel Tower made out of matchsticks. With lights, as well. That must have taken quite some time. And we hope that when it’s destroyed, it’s by someone lighting the matches and watching it burn down. Possibly while playing the anthem of the French Revolution, if such a thing existed.
India's joining the space race - and needs a name for their intrepid explorers. Things brings to mind a future where Sol never sets on the Indian Empire... but they’ll have to pass the preliminaries first. Getting someone up into space and orbiting around the Earth, and possibly a manned Luna mission. As I have theorized myself at times, though, extraterrestrial life could very well be out there - we may just not be smart enough to notice. Although, if the Open University study turns out to be true, life on Earth may have arrived from Mars.
Even though the exhortations from our doctors say we should drink more water than we do now - with soda and other drinks being potentially unhealthy, there can be too much water in your diet, as a woman proved by dying from water poisoning. Mind you, it took a lot, and part of the contest involved was to hold it in rather than excrete it, so that probably contributed to the problem. All for a video game system, though.
The formatting is difficult for someone who likes clean paragraph breaks, but the gist of this letter is someone is trying to defend America as the best nation, but is losing the argument as time goes on. They would like it if any excuse at all could appear that would let them continue to defend America as a liberal democratic country with justification for the mess being made. At the moment, my best response is that it’s not going to happen with the current bunch in charge. Wait a few decades and see if it’s possible to say “American democracy” and it reflect the government in power.
The media, however, already seems intent on linking possible Presidential candidate Barack Obama to as many people against the Bush Administration as possible. The latest, a weak attempt at best, comes from CNN's Jeff Greenfield, who compares Obama's fashion sense to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran. All together now. One, Two, Three. Lame!. And now, in your best Syndrome voice: Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame! The media is already trying to skewer Obama with whatever they can put their hands on. Liberal media, my tailscales.
There was an uptick in samurai honor a few days ago, where a gentleman with a sword assisted police officers outnumbered in a raid. There’s very little detail, as the man vanished before information could be got about him. Metro.co.uk has more on the sword-wielding hero, as well as a caution against vigilante behavior. It would be rather strange to prosecute someone for assisting police in such a way. Of course, the gent was probably putting himself in serious harm’s way, but I don’t think he’d be breaking any concealment laws. On the other end of the spectrum, a different gent swinging a sword about was shot with a rubber bullet by police. Apparently, swords are now popular in the United Kingdom, both for aiding and for requiring the police.
(NYTimes) California takes a bold step and outlines a health care plan for everyone in the state. It’ll get employers to offer insurance, expand the state’s safety-net eligibility, tax doctors and hospitals percentages to be put back into the insurance fund, and force insurance companies to spend 85 percent of their premiums on health care services. The Governator might make something work out here, assuming his legislators go along with it. That could be the big problem.
In the randomness that crosses my desk daily, I single out this particular expression, not because I think it’s wrong, or because it seems to express one side of an equation, but because of the question it asks. One of Every Woman is a Goddess's commentators answers "Would you rather have been a man?" in the negative, and uses the reasoning of things like wearing soft underwear, breastfeeding children, and being the receptive one for sex. And then, she asks the wider community, “What does being a woman mean to you?” In that question, I think, there are lots of great answers and a large amount of wisdom. Turning the question around for men produces equally important wisdom, I’d say. We could probably learn a lot about each other and about the state of a nation from answering that kind of question. So I’ll pose it to the readership. What does being a man/woman/transgender being mean to you?
For me, at it’s most basic, being a man means that I have a Y chromosome. And with that came all thee assorted sexual equipment that develops. More conceptually, though, being a man means I have to deal with what other people think of me all the time. It means that I have to deal with women told that I am a rapist, because “all men are rapists”, in one way or another, regardless as to whether I commit a sexual assault. I have to deal with the assertion that “real men don’t cry”, and that only men who are somehow less than adequate express sadness through tears. I have to deal with the contention that I am responsible for the oppression of many, simply because I am a man, and that I will have an easier life than others, because I am a man. I must deal with the assertion that somehow, my worth to others is measured in athletic prowess, sexual ability, physical strength, or the salary that I earn. Being a man has its share of problems. As does being a woman, or being a transgendered being. At the same time, being a man does have occasional advantages - I have a relatively standardized language for clothing , for one. Sizes are basically the same, regardless of manufacturer. Being a man does mean that clothing designed for minimal coverage is an exception, not a rule. Being a man means that I can do a really good ape impression without trying too hard. Being a man does mean the onset of body hair and the deepening of voice. (I still can’t sing worth a damn, though.) Being a man does mean humor involving objects hitting sensitive spots and what results. Occasionally, said humor is actually funny. Being a man mans that sometimes I play coatrack, and other times I play the strong, silent type to someone I’m escorting. (Generally, though, the person that I’m escorting is far more vicious than I am.) Or maybe that’s just being tall. In any case, there are some good bits involved from being male, but the majority of my good things come from being me, and those probably wouldn’t change much, regardless of whether I was man, woman, intersex, transgender, or anything else. I’m not the kind of man who’s all for beer, steak, potatoes, football, and a totally subservient woman at my beck and call. I’d probably get kicked in the nuts if I tried something like that. But I have to deal with all the people who are like that, and all the previous people who worked hard to build the stereotype of masculinity to the boorishness that it is today.
Anyway, that’s what it is for me, in a slightly-longwinded manner. Now, I’m going to bed. I really should actually do some work tomorrow.
