Jul. 31st, 2007

silveradept: The letters of the name Silver Adept, arranged in the shape of a lily pad (SA-Name-Small)
I have found the secret to my job hunt attitudes. It’s like a coiled spring - when there’s something to wind myself up on, I’ve got drive, ambition, mania, and a strong desire to do well and progress. When I’m in a lull, I’m relaxed-to-depressed and worry that I’m not going to have any other chances to get all coiled up again. But I have a good support system when I get all coiled up - I call on previous expertise, and the librarians at the AADL that I worked with over the summer have been more than willing to help me out with suggestions and ideas on what to do for skills-assessment type segments of interviews. I’ve got a good slate of those coming up in the next two weeks, so my mood will probably shift back to hopeful rather than depressed. Just consider it the spring compressing again.

Following up from yesterday, [livejournal.com profile] przxqgl pointed out to me what could be the original list of "rectal foreign bodies" removed by doctors from 1986. So it’s been a long-standing tradition for years now, I guess. And there are occasionally some of those stories that make the news on slow days...

Congratulations to the Iraqi football team, who defeated Saudi Arabia in the final of the Asian Cup one-nil. As with many peoples, a victory in sport is sufficient to put aside squabbles, at least temporarily.

Third tour ahoy for a Massachusettes Marine. That much exposure to a war zone, and I wonder how he’s going to come back and deal with life after war, assuming that he isn’t brought back in a body bag. If that happens, of course, he'll be hailed as a hero. If he should return alive, though, he’ll probably be treated like dirt. Some soldiers already think they are.

Juxtaposition: While some members of the current administration believe Saudi Arabia is contributing to the instability in Iraq, this does not stop the United States from selling them nearly $20 billion in arms as a response to Iran. Something here isn’t running on all cylinders - why fund who could be a great contributor to continuing the “Global War on Terror”, the holy crusade, again? In some ways, Afghanistan is running a better track record, with the call to release female hostages, citing Islam and the culture as reasons why to let the women go.

The Washington Post offers excellent advice on why everybody should see if salary and raises are negotiable, regardless of gender - you tend to make more over time if you get it. According to the study, women really need to step up to the plate and play some hardball if they want the higher salaries. Of course, the WaPo also cautioned that those who negotiate seem less nice, may not get hired as often, and that women tend to take the brunt of such matters. So economically, it’s worth negotiating, but you take social damage. Gold up, CHA down, apparently.

I’m sure the following will amuse many on my list, possibly those in Europe more than here in the United States - a German children's book is not going to be published in America because one of the paintings has nipples and one of the statues has a penis. A very tiny one, and not in full anatomical detail, but apparently that’s enough to stop publication. And the German author wisely said, “If you’re going to censor my book, go ahead, but show that it’s been censored with black bars or something. None of this silent censorship crap.” So no publishing because artistic nudity is apparently too much for children. In that vein, I assume then that all art museums will also be required not to display any piece that might have nudity of any sort or any suggestive content in it. David will have a fig leaf covering his privates, as will any reproduction of Michaelangelo’s ceiling work, for starters. And let’s not get started on the folk art. Also, hot air balloons shaped like prophylactics with safe sex messages on them will be immediately grounded and destroyed. Hotels offering discreet purchase of pleasure aids for use in the hotel or to be shipped home will have such programs stopped. And people will wonder in shock about how much teenagers seem to be concerned with sex and the parts hidden under clothing, no doubt. [Edited in, thanks to the time vortex of the TARDIS: Chronicle Books, out of San Francisco, will be publishing the book in Fall 2008.]

Also related to females, is a suit by some Washington pharmacists against the state regulation that requires them to dispense emergency contraception, or find someone else to do so such that the customer’s request is fulfilled on that visit if they should object. As I recall, one of the primary tenets of the medical profession is “Do no harm.” And in a case between emergency contraception and having a child that you can’t support and that will be jockeyed through foster care, which does less harm to the child, much less the mother? Luckily, as [livejournal.com profile] bradhicks lays out elegantly, there's more chance of a snowball surviving in a thermite explosion than this challenge being successful. And he makes a good argument why the old, pre-Scalia standards were better.

Finally, regarding a uniquely female thing - a woman gives birth in the paint aisle of a store, with the staff doing well to cordon off the area and assist with the birth. My guess is that the child wanted to pick out the color of the room while Mom was looking at the possible choices.

New york Times article about the private libraries of CEOs - they don’t have stacks and stacks of business books, but poetry, plays, fiction, philosophy, and other such reading. The sorts of things that will get people to think and come up with new ideas and novel ways of doing business. Brush up on your Shakespeare if you want to run a corporation one day. Oh, and ignore the example of Paris Hilton, who was written out of her grandfather's will for her bad behavior - to the tune of $60 million, which very well may be pocket change.

Our technology department offers something to ponder on - It's a sea mine! It's an alien invasion craft! It's an espresso machine? Wonder if it’s the prized toy of someone who’s really protective of their blend?

Exploding Aardvark asks an important question of language - Is there an American equivalent to "wanker"? Should there be? And would it be an appropriate phrase to describe the potical hack who blocked a surgeon general's report because it was insufficiently praiseworthy of and focused on the Bush administration's accomplishments? The rebuttal is that it was not a scientifically rigorous study, yet it held the approval of the Surgeon General. The person blocking it did not have a medical or public health degree. Who would you trust?

Wanker or its equivalent could also be applied to Mr. Brown's refusal to apologize to the doctor that Australian police held for having given his SIM card to his cousin. Something not quite up for wankery, but on a related wavelength is whether those persons that report their neighbors as being suspiciously-behaving should be exempt from civil lawsuits, should the reporters turn out to be wrong. This seems to fit under a larger umbrella idea that a citizen who believes that their fellow is a terrorist should report that, even if they have no evidence or demonstratable cause to support that claim. Considering the country has laws against slander, libel, defamation and other practices that basically seek to paint someone in a negative light without having sufficient evidence to back their claims, I don’t think the standard should change when you’re talking about possibly tarring someone as a potential terrorist, since I suspect there are consequences to that. Even if cleared, I wonder if those imams are on the secret no-fly list anyway?

Religious wankery put in my presence is another "exorcism", this time of a three year-old girl. The grandfather involved was stun-gunned and eventually died. What possesses people to think that their three year-old is possessed? Further wankery involves the citation of unreliable sources after apologizing for citing unreliable sources, of which it sounds like the original column is a work of wankery by itself against homosexuals.

Perhaps Tokyo-3 is already under construction? Or has been for some time? (Those not familiar with Neon Genesis Evangelion, this joke probably went over your head.) What lies in those tunnels and spaces that are not on the map or otherwise hidden.

Speaking of Japan, there's been elections in Japan, and the opposition party, now stronger than before, demand the prime minster resign. They control the upper house and have stripped the majority out of the hands of the current government.

Methinks this is a pretty incoherent entry, without much for rhyme and reason. Compared to every other one, then, it’s probably squarely on target.

Omniquantism, one of the spiritual possibilities I have considered, although it took [livejournal.com profile] blacktigr linking me to the strip to find that someone else had given it a name. I doubt, somehow, that anything that I think of has not been thought before, it’s just a matter as to whether someone has named it. If I ever do have an idea that nobody has thought of before, it will be a proud moment in my life. Also, in spiritual matters, a defence of using psychological triggers and symbols in conjunction with active pursuance of your goals. Or, why performing magic has its uses, if you believe that to be the nature of magic. If you are more inclined to other interpretations, I don’t know how well this piece will stick with you. Your experience may vary.

Anway, on that note, I think I’m going to bed. I just yawned, and I’ve got four books to read and plot out some semblance of linking material between at least two, if not all four, before Thursday. They don’t look to be too big, but they’ll take time and creativity.

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