Some days, I wish I was able and willing to gun down assholes where they stand, in cold blood.

Here's an article about one such asshole.

http://mobile.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/features/2012/elisabeth_badinter_s_the_conflict/the_conflict_elisabeth_badinter_publicis_and_nestle_.html

If you would like to read the article this was in response to, here you go. It is atrocious. Talk about shaming women...

http://mobile.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/features/2012/elisabeth_badinter_s_the_conflict/the_conflict_by_elisabeth_badinter_the_invention_of_baby_formula_changed_women_s_lives_.html

Yesterday Alex worked his tail off to make up his online Biology 1 Honors class work. Sucks to fall behind, dude... Then he was ready for parts where the teacher is required, but she was away. We were worried this meant he may fail the class so he and I both wrote emails and he called and left messages to show that he'd tried.

Mark and I left for Lea's birthday party with that worry in the back of our minds. Nevertheless, we had a really good time. Lea and Stevan are grand hosts, and all our friends are great fun to hang with! I was definitely tipsy well before we left. It's okay. No one ever lets me drive anyway. :D

Today turned out to be a good day. I mean, yeah this stomach ache thing that's shown up every day for three days showed up. Treated with a dose of Pepto Bismol, it retreats. I wish I knew what the hell it was, but I don't care if it will just Go Away. It comes with a headache. Today that part faced quickly, so yay. We shall credit all that alcohol because why not, right? ;)

I did get up early enough to zoom through the garden and take some flower photos. Mark and I got home from the party by 3 AM, but my brain made me get up at 9:30. Oh well, means I'll sleep more or less on time tonight. Good. And I didn't feel at all sleep deprived all day, which is a good sign too.

Alex woke with a headache too, but it went away soon enough that he got the front yard mowed before the real heat set in. I *LOVE* having a child old enough to run the riding mower! While he was out, his online class teacher called to answer questions he'd had, and cleared up what we thought might be real trouble with a deadline. That was a huge relief!

I watched a Netflix disc that had been waiting, "Gunless." A western, but not typical, a bit slow paced but I really enjoyed the story and the acting. Recommended. :) Good humor! And, some amusing blooper scenes before credits.

And! Kendall got home from Oasis (science fiction convention he did panels at) in Orlando in time for us to keep our nookie date! We have so much fun. Loving and laughing, what could possibly be a better way to wrap up a day?

My life is wonderful, weird, fun, sometimes stressful, but charmed.

This is a very good list to read if you face complexity - as we all do. The last several points tell me why I screw up now & then, and why, for instance, it's sometimes hard to explain to people just what non-monogamy can mean. When poly people say "It's complicated," we really mean it! :)

http://www.openthefuture.com/2012/05/nine_meditations_on_complexity.html

It is funny to write here, to know someone will probably read these words and maybe have a thought or two spin off because of them. It's funny to generate via keyboard and electrons this tenuous connection, often not acknowledged - which is perfectly fine, because my first audience is me and if I am entertained, it was a success. How many commas can I put into one sentence and not confuse someone? ...My readers can decipher. Commas are no challenge. :) Even my favorite college composition professor would be amused. ...My goodness he was cute... That was omg 36 years ago.

Time keeps rolling along whether you're paying attention or not, have you noticed that? Well, the older you get, the more this will rear up and smack you on the nose. It's rude. But it does hone a particular and growing appreciation for how you choose to spend your time. And it makes you, well me, tend more and more to avoid things like arguing on the Internet, and suffering fools, and blabbering on about television shows and so on. You'd think this would apply to not tweeting insufferably often, but alas, sorry, no. Sorry. I'd edit more, but at the time of each tweet it seemed important enough, see. I suppose this makes Twitter my water-cooler. G+ is more pithy. Especially if what caused the pith has a G+ share link, that is terribly handy. I see why Facebook became so popular, its link is more everywhere than G+'s are, so far. But more and more sites are adding G+ so yes, very handy. LJ is where I come to...be home. As full as my life is, it cannot be so full as to make me abandon my online spaces. I'm here because I need this venue, like I need each room in my house.

I have only had one beer, most of this is brought to you by hormone-brain, just so you know. Hormone brain is amusing when it isn't causing trouble. This morning what I meant as teasing apparently sounded like real impatience, ...oops. I am not sure how to curtail that. I may not be able to. Being on birth control pills leveled out these moods & whatnot remarkably. Off the pill, I get the whole roller coaster ride, and so do those around me. Whee. :) Lots of good there, I guess we really ought not to be surprised that there are downsides too.

Okay, I can be done now. Thanks for letting me get that out of my head. :D

I wish I was allowed to, and/or that I was brave enough, to live like this.

8 Points on Relationship Anarchy
By Andie Nordgren (translation by Leo Nordwall and Elli Åhlvik)

http://www.polyamory.org.uk/relationship_anarchy.html

It's supposed to hurt to think about it!

Category: Physics
Posted on: May 19, 2012 3:09 PM, by Ethan Siegel

"But some of the greatest achievements in philosophy could only be compared with taking up some books which seemed to belong together, and putting them on different shelves; nothing more being final about their positions than that they no longer lie side by side. The onlooker who doesn't know the difficulty of the task might well think in such a case that nothing at all had been achieved." -Wittgenstein

One of the most fundamental questions about the Universe that anyone can ask is, "Why is there anything here at all?"

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2012/05/its_supposed_to_hurt_to_think.php


"None of these answers are convincing or compelling, mind you, and I am not sure that the questions do even make sense as far as reality is concerned. But just because we cannot yet know the answers, or whether the questions are sensible as far as reality is concerned, doesn't mean there isn't value to asking them and thinking about them. To me, that's what philosophy is. I would encourage everyone to remember the words of my favorite philosopher, Alan Watts:

The reason for it is that most civilized people are out of touch with reality because they confuse the world as it is with the world as they think about it, talk about it, and describe it. On the one hand, there is the real world, and on the other, a whole system of symbols about that world that we have in our minds. These are very very useful symbols -- all civilization depends on them -- but like all good things, they have their disadvantages, and the principal disadvantage of symbols is that we confuse them with reality.""

That's what makes thinking hard about stuff so very difficult. It can be quite a challenge to remember what is symbols, and what might be reality.

(I know, all this posting all of a sudden, it's ridiculous!)

A quote from a scientist writing about science:

"While we’re awake, your brain is forming memories."

This, kids, is why we pay attention in English class. He didn't mean to switch pronouns there, but the effect? Is Very Creepy. Like, you could start a horror novel this way.

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012

This is one of the best grad speeches I've had the pleasure of hearing, particularly for artists, makers, anyone creative. And, in one sense or another, that's all of us.

http://vimeo.com/42372767