Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Myspacebarisbroken.*
I'musingJerry'soldkeyboardandIhavetoPOUNDinordertogetthespacebartowork.

I'veofficiallygivenuponthisfutility,asyoucansee.

Myformerkeyboard'skeyswon'tworkatallnow--they'retotallystuck.

Isn'titfunnyhowatechinologicalglitchcanserveasametaphorforyourentireday?

But,Ididwinafreecoffeetoday--playingrolluptherim.

TomorrowI'veGOTtogobuyanewkeyboard.

Seriously.

[*decoder ring not included]


Monday, February 27, 2006
Enlarge this!

Sunday, February 26, 2006
Attention, geeks -- I've got computer woes.
This afternoon, I (rather stupidly) spilled coffee all over my desktop keyboard. I managed to dry/shake out most of the intruding fluid off the keys -- but now my keyboard is acting funky.

Everything was okay for the first hour or so after the spill, but then, whenever I would press a key, it would act as if I was pressing control+the key. (for example: I'd press "i" and it would act as if I pressed control+i and would turn on the italics macro)

I restarted the computer, and when I did, then the keyboard wouldn't respond AT all. So, I tried replacing the keyboard with an older one we have around the house, and it wouldn't work, either.

Luckily, I have a USB port-replicator, and so now I'm plugging in the keyboard through that, and not the regular keyboard port (that doesn't appear to be working). Apparently, while composing this, my Dell keyboard lost its ability to use the space key, so I'm on the old keyboard.

Could I have shorted out the keyboard port in my coffee spillage? What's the next step for me to do? This port-replicator deal is working for now, but I'd rather be able to plug in my keyboard directly.

This is my first spillage incident, involving computers. While I'm *so glad* it was a keyboard, and NOT my laptop, it's still really frustrating.

HELP!

Today's reading
... will be from Yann Martel's Life of Pi (page 78):

There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush.


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Saturday, February 25, 2006
News roundup:
  • Pentagon: Iraqi Troops Downgraded: The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.
  • US agrees not to fund abstinence program: The federal government agreed to stop funding a nationwide program that promotes teen abstinence to settle a lawsuit alleging the money was used for Christian proselytizing.
  • Barrier Methods: Why it's so hard to get birth control at Planned Parenthood: Conservatives paint Planned Parenthood as an abortion mill and birth-control factory, an institution that doles out emergency contraception to teenage girls like Halloween candy. But a few years ago, I realized birth control wasn't quite as easy to get as I (or the religious right) thought.

    [...] And the president's appropriations for the program have stagnated. Right now, Title X's annual allotment is $283 million a year; if it kept pace with inflation, that number would be $693 million. But instead of increasing funding, the Bush administration is funneling money to abstinence-only education, which doesn't provide information on contraception — or health care.
(incidentially, more insurance companies cover the costs of Viagra than will cover the costs of birth control pills)

Ohio Republicans banned from adopting children?

If an Ohio lawmaker's proposal becomes state law, Republicans would be barred from being adoptive parents.

State Sen. Robert Hagan sent out e-mails to fellow lawmakers late Wednesday night, stating that he intends to "introduce legislation in the near future that would ban households with one or more Republican voters from adopting children or acting as foster parents." The e-mail ended with a request for co-sponsorship.

On Thursday, the Youngstown Democrat said he had not yet found a co-sponsor.

Hagan said his "tongue was planted firmly in cheek" when he drafted the proposed legislation. However, Hagan said that the point he is trying to make is nonetheless very serious.

Hagan said his legislation was written in response to a bill introduced in the Ohio House this month by state Rep. Ron Hood, R-Ashville, that is aimed at prohibiting gay adoption.

"We need to see what we are doing," said Hagan, who called Hood's proposed bill blatantly discriminatory and extremely divisive. Hagan called Hood and the eight other conservative House Republicans who backed the anti-gay adoption bill "homophobic."

Hood's bill, which does not have support of House leadership, seeks to ban children from being placed for adoption or foster care in homes where the prospective parent or a roommate is homosexual, bisexual or transgender.

To further lampoon Hood's bill, Hagan wrote in his mock proposal that "credible research" shows that adopted children raised in Republican households are more at risk for developing "emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities."

However, Hagan admitted that he has no scientific evidence to support the above claims.

Just as "Hood had no scientific evidence" to back his assertion that having gay parents was detrimental to children, Hagan said.

"It flies in the face of reason when we need to reform our education system, address health care and environmental issues that we put energy and wasted time (into) legislation (Hood's) like this," continued Hagan, who has been in the Ohio Senate nine years. Before the Senate, he served 19 years in the Ohio House.

link


I love it.


grrrl meets world --

[noun]:

A level headed person who always makes the wrong decision

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com


via


Friday, February 24, 2006
Fish can't fly
From the website:

Is religion something that only belongs to a few? Taking a secular point of view, FISH CAN’T FLY explores the lives of Gay men and women of faith as they recall their journeys to put their sexuality and spirituality in harmony. While the whole concept of changing ones’ sexual orientation may be viewed with a high level of skepticism, ridicule and even humor by the larger GLBT community, these are the stories of those who have tried.

Finding that their strong religious convictions and faith seemed to be used against them, these are the personal stories of people who have participated in “ex-gay” ministries and found in fact that they did not provide a “cure“…. the answers seemed to come from within. The stories they recall are sad, frightening, poignant and yet surprisingly inspiring and enlightening. With less of a focus on the "ex-gay" movement, the film is more about the telling of stories behind the debate and the role religion can play in one's life. During our lives, each of us embarks on a journey to find our place in the world. Being Gay can make that process more difficult….being Gay and having strong religious convictions can make it doubly hard.

This afternoon the University chaplins screened the documentary Fish Can't Fly. It is such a good (and important) film, that I'm already ordering a copy of it. I'm hoping that I can show it to some important people in my life, if only so that they can see the other side of a polarized issue in the Church.

I know that I'm still processing a lot of what I saw. The movie consists of several gay men and lesbian women who share their stories of what it is like to grow up gay in the Church. Most of them ended up in several ex-gay ministries (or "miseries") -- where they were forced to divide their sexuality from their spirituality, in a desperate effort to be accepted amongst God's people.

Some of their stories were heart-wrecking. Many of them earnestly tried to deny an inherent part of themselves, mainly out of an institutionalized self-loathing. They attended programs, only to be taught that their natural desires were akin to cannibalism (!!) -- and that in order to be accepted into God's kingdom, they'd forever have to live a lie and deny any natural inclinations that God gave them. These men and women endured rejection upon rejection from the people closest to them -- and many of them were sucidial as result. (and yet are still people out there who believe this is a "willful choice?!")

At one point, a psychologist was talking about the effect of these reparation ex-gay programs -- you know, the ones that are intended to make gay people straight. This doctor likened these programs to a covert form of sexual abuse. He said that when sexual molestation happens to a young child, it is because the adult is forcing his or her sexuality upon the child. The adult is, in essence, saying that his/her sexuality is more of a priority than that of the child's -- it's overt sexual abuse. Covert sexual abuse is when you are told that your sexuality is not natural, and must be either transformed or never acted upon -- because it's "God's will."

Throughout history, the Bible has been used to justify prejudice in a variety of ways -- discriminating against gender, race, and now homosexuality. There's nothing worse than institutionalized ignorance, and my passion is to show the human side behind this divisive issue. I want people who are so ardently against homosexuals (including those who "hate the sin, love the sinner) to see the person behind the doctrine. It just tears me up inside to see my friends, who I love, discriminated against because of something biological that was out of their control. It is SO unfair to make someone who's gay have to decide between their spirituality and their sexuality. How is that possible? Which would you choose?

My passion for this topic stems from my own experience. I also know what it's like to be told how I am "supposed" to act and believe. Growing up in an evangelical church, I knew where my place was, as a woman. I was quoted, chapter and verse, sections of the Bible that told me where I fit into the hierarchy of relationships and leadership within the Church. If I questioned, I was told to "have more faith" (translated: sit down and shut up).

I also know what it's like to have certain Bible verses thrown in your face, ones that forever change the way people see you.

RLP posted on this topic yesterday, and he referred to this video, by Dr. Lewis Smedes. In it, he says:
...and then I met a lot of other gay people, lesbian people, who suffered a lot -- in the hands, of all things, their churches. The ONE place on this Earth where grace, and love, and fairness ought to be the theme of life for them. Their gay children -- their gay sons, their lesbian daughters -- are treated with such cruelty and injustice.

Nobody that I've met in these churches wants to be cruel -- and wants to be unjust and unfair in their treatment of them. But, their minds are so conditioned that when they are cruel to homosexual people, their minds tell them that all they are doing is eschewing rejecting SIN. And, that grieves me so terribly.

I think that the Church's treatment of homosexuality has become the greatest heresy in the history of the Church. It's living heresy -- because it's treating God's children as if they're not God's children. If there's any heresy in the world, it's that. It isn't just that the Church is making a mistake -- it's doing a great wrong.
Watch it.

Much more to say on this, but I'll save it for another day (& another rant).

Sites I never knew existed:

Thursday, February 23, 2006
Quote of the day:
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Love it.
















via
You know your day is starting off badly, when ...
  • You wake up in the middle of the night, at exactly 3:00AM. (after watching this movie, you know you need to stay in bed whenever this happens)
  • When getting ready for school, your hairbrush falls head-first into the toliet. Now your brush is completely ruined, and you've got to listen to your husband snicker for the rest of the day about it. (UPDATE: Jerry waxes philosophical about the whole experience here.)


Wednesday, February 22, 2006
  • Feministing mentions an article: Anti-choice group supports fired Catholic school teacher -- "Feminists for Life" support 26-year-old woman who was fired from her teaching position for being pregnant. This group claims that by firing her, the school system is inadvertently encouraging abortion. My view? Hooray for women being supported, rather than excommunicated! That said, if contraceptives were used in the first place, perhaps this wouldn't be such an issue.
  • Also from Feministing, the reality TV show 30 Days (the one done by Morgan Spurlock, of Super Size Me fame) is currently casting a 20-40 year old "Pro-Choice Feminist." From the casting call:
    Each episode of 30 Days places an individual in a living environment that is antithetical to their upbringing, beliefs, religion or profession. One of the episodes we are developing this season will tackle the subject of women's reproductive rights. We are interested in having a young feminist who describes herself as pro-choice live in a home for young pregnant women. This promises to be a wonderful opportunity to bring a compassionate debate on this supremely sensitive issue to a national television audience while also sharing your beliefs with someone from the opposite side of a supremely polarizing issue.

    I loved watching last season's 30 Days -- the whole idea of having to live and experience a different viewpoint for 30 days really intrigues me. I'm curious how this episode will go over. I hope they'll do a companion show, with an anti-choicer experiencing the other side.
  • Yes, I'm also aware of South Dakota's vote today. It's a figurehead vote, because they're doing it purposefully to take the case before the Supreme Court. Dark days for women.

*Olympics spoiler below*



















I'm living in a sad, sad country right now.

Our hockey team just lost to Russia, 2-0.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2006
February
I threw your keys in the water, I looked back,
Theyd frozen halfway down in the ice.
They froze up so quickly, the keys and their owners,
Even after the anger, it all turned silent, and
The everyday turned solitary,
So we came to February.

First we forgot where wed planted those bulbs last year,
Then we forgot that wed planted at all,
Then we forgot what plants are altogether,
and I blamed you for my freezing and forgetting and
The nights were long and cold and scary,
Can we live through February?

You know I think Christmas was a long red glare,
Shot up like a warning, we gave presents without cards,
And then the snow,
And then the snow came, we were always out shoveling,
And wed drop to sleep exhausted,
Then wed wake up, and its snowing.

And February was so long that it lasted into March
And found us walking a path alone together.
You stopped and pointed and you said, "Thats a crocus,"
And I said, "Whats a crocus?" and you said, "Its a flower,"
I tried to remember, but I said, "Whats a flower?"
You said, "I still love you."

The leaves were turning as we drove to the hardware store,
My new lover made me keys to the house,
And when we got home, well we just started chopping wood,
Because you never know how next year will be,
And well gather all our arms can carry,
I have lost to February.


My "Images of God" collage

My "Images of God" collage, originally uploaded by becky b..

Here it is. If you click on over to my Flickr page, I've added some notes to explain a lot of the collage's significance in the different pictures I chose.

Jordon's uploaded a bunch of photos of the evening's events here.

The gods have smiled down upon me
Tonight I really needed a discovery like this one -- as we're driving home, I look over at the abandoned building next to the DQ and notice a sign in the window. "Coming soon: Starbucks." (!!!)

This cafe will only be a block from our house. We've always been surprised that no cafe has opened up where we live -- it's prime real estate, right across the street from the University.

So now whenever I'm writing and the walls start to come in on me in my little office upstairs, I can escape and buy a cup of overpriced caffeine! (or Fair Trade coffee -- supposedly all Starbucks around the country are supposed to have Fair Trade brewing at all times)

So. excited.

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Monday, February 20, 2006
"Welcome to the Real World," she said to me -- condescendingly
Have you ever had a bunch of reality checks heaped upon you all at once, which leave you gasping for air (both metaphorically and otherwise)? I'm feeling like I did when I was 18, at the verge of graduating high school, with the whole world suddenly ahead of me -- and I had no clue which way to go.

I'm 28, and I'm still having growing pains. I'm 28, and I still have NO idea what I'm going to be whenever I "grow up." In my immediate future, my tunnel vision can see a pile of papers to mark, and a thesis chapter to work on. But after August of this year, when my thesis WILL BE done (dammit) -- I have no idea what I'll be doing. It's scary -- but unfortunately, I have too much work and too little sleep right now to worry about it too much.

I wish I could be like Scarlett O'Hara, and confidently say "I'll worry about that tomorrow." My only problem is that "tomorrow" will arrive in the next 7 months. (along with some massive student loan payments)

I'm currently taking applications for patrons and/or rich relatives. Anyone who's interested can apply in the comments below.

Filed under "duh":
Pat Robertson Accused of Damaging Movement he Helped Create --
Fellow conservative religious leaders have expressed concern and even open criticism over evangelist Pat Robertson's habit of shooting from the hip on his daily religious news-and-talk television program, "The 700 Club."

The Christian Coalition founder and former Republican presidential candidate has said American agents should assassinate leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for pulling Israel out of the Gaza Strip.

Some observers say Robertson, who will turn 76 next month, courts controversy as a strategy to stay recognizable and keep his followers mobilized. Others say he remains important to the evangelical movement that he helped create when he established the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network in 1960 - but he needs to stop damaging it with his words.

[...]

On the other hand, Brian Britt, director of the Religious Studies Program at Virginia Tech, said Robertson's remarks are not just "off-the-wall, crazy uncle stuff" but part of a strategy that earns him headlines.

When people attack Robertson, he wins sympathy for appearing to be an underdog, Britt said.

"It reinforces an image of Christianity as a persecuted religion, a religion that is being hounded by the secularists out of the public square, rather than a dominant and hegemonic force," Britt said.

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Monday Monday, can't trust that day.
Reading Week is now officially over, and I'm thinking I need another week to get over my "week off." I'm not sure if it's the cold weather, the shifted-around sleep schedules, or just stress -- but lately I'm running on little to no sleep. I've got a meeting in an hour, and I'm already plotting out a necessary caffeine stop to tide me over.

I really just want a vacation of some sort -- I'm coming down with a case of cabin-fever, and am feeling the need to GET AWAY. But, alas, the extreme lack of funds and abundence of work will be keeping me close to the home fires in the near (to far) future.

So in honor of days like today, here's a music list I recently burnt on CD:
Every Little Bit – Patti Griffin
Not Pretty Enough – Kasey Chambers
World on Fire – Sarah MacLachlan
Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley
Imaginary Friends – Ron Sexsmith
Have you Forgotten? – Red House Painters
Mary’s in India – Dido
Cannonball – Damien Rice
Walking Alone – Megan Lane
Elevator Beat – Nancy Wilson
No Net Below – Jonatha Brooke
The Only Living Boy in New York – Simon & Garfunkel
The Blowers Daughter – Damien Rice
10,000 Miles – Mary Chapin Carpenter
I just don’t think I’ll get over you – Colin Hay
Fare Thee Well – Indigo Girls
From the edge of the deep green sea – The Cure

Enjoy your Monday!


Sunday, February 19, 2006
Freehouse, tonight.

The Refinery
Originally uploaded by Jordon.
Imago Dei is an interactive worship installation hosted by the worship.freehouse on February 19th at 7:00 p.m.

It is the fusion of music, liturgy, art, and discussion as we explore the image of God in the first of a series of worship gatherings looking at our relationship with God, others, and our world.

We will be at a brand new location in the Refinery Art and Spirit Centre at 609 Dufferin Avenue (map). If you have never been there, it is right behind Victoria School, just off Broadway Avenue by five corners.

Saturday, February 18, 2006
Becky Bennetch, future CBC editor?
Found on this story:
The loss doesn't affect Canada's chances of winning a goal medal, but it may change its seeding for the quarter-finals and beyond.

It would be one way I could make this degree somewhat lucrative.

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Thinking Day
Tomorrow is our annual Thinking Day tea celebration for Girl Guides. Thinking Day is the day that Boy Scouts and Girl Guides/Scouts around the world celebrate the birthdays of the founders of the Scouting movement, Lord and Lady Baden-Powell.

[I haven't celebrated Thinking Day for years and years. It's funny, for the first time in my life, I can make the milestone statement of "I haven't done this in 20 years or more." I can't believe it's actually been over 20 years since I was a Brownie!]

So tomorrow as I man my assigned booth, I'll get to watch a bunch of girls and parents celebrate what the great B-Ps gave us. Part of me is a little sad that Girl Guides don't acknowledge Juliette Gordon Low for her contributions to Scouting.

Low was a native Savannahian who started up a girl version of Scouts, much to Lord B-P's dismay. He wanted her to call the group "Girl Guides," but she refused and kept calling them "Girl Scouts." She was one spunky woman, and I've always admired her for what she's given girls all around the world. (likewise, I've always had a disdain for Lord B-P and his jerkiness about the whole name-deal)

Growing up, I've been to the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace so many times that I could probably lead the tour.

Some interesting facts I never knew about the history of Scouting:
  • Juliette Low was the second woman in US history to have a federal building named after her in 1983 (why there's such a low amount of women being commemorated is another issue altogether)
  • Growing up, she attended the Virigina Female Institute in Staunton, Virginia -- only 15 minutes from where my parents now live
  • According to wiki, Lord B-P had a "failed engagement" to Juliette Low!! (now that explains some of the animosity between those two that I remember reading about)
  • Also according to the wiki entry (that cites a scholarly book written on B-P), Lord B-P was an alleged repressed homosexual who was attracted to young boys' physiques. He never did anything improper with them (and suggested "flogging" any leader who did anything inappropriate with any boy), but his wife was known to flatten her breasts and wear her hair cut short, in order to please him with her appearance.
Hmmm, somehow I doubt this type of information will be shared at tomorrow's Thinking Day tea. It does add a whole new dimension to the celebration, though!

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Piece'd God
This afternoon I went over to her house to put some finishing touches on this weekend's Freehouse: Imago Dei (of which, you should all come out for -- this Sunday night at 7pm, at the Refinery off Broadway).

The activities of this particular Freehouse will be especially creative, and I'm looking forward to seeing what art will result from it. My very first Freehouse experience a couple years ago was similar -- on that night we were supposed to explore our relationship with God "via the unspoken word," which resulted in my collage of pictures and text from various National Geographics. That collection of ripped out pictures on a piece of cardboard is still really special to me -- for reasons I can and can't articulate.

Well, this afternoon Wendy and I were making a new set of collages to go along with the theme of the evening, which is the image of God. One of the things we'll be examining is our personal image of God -- and how it contains both positive and negative ways of seeing him/her/it. Hopefully by the end of the night, we'll have collectively come to a better (though not definitive) understanding of what the divine really looks like.

We wanted our collages to have both positive and negative images to illustrate the different ways we perceive God -- so we scoured a bunch of magazines (thanks to Tracey), and found pictures of everything from happy fathers with kids and peaceful nature scenes (these would be our good images) to pictures of certain despotic leaders (can you guess who?), Santa Claus (a la materialism), and various images that evoke negative feelings and misunderstandings of God.

As we started to put them together, I originally thought we'd have two separate works of art -- one with all the negative images, and one with all the good. But we then decided that it would be more powerful (and true) to have both qualities on each collage -- both the good and the bad. We decided this because the way we all see God isn't always so cut and dry -- and whether we admit it or not, we all see God in both positive and negative lights.

The collages came together great -- maybe I'll take a picture of them this weekend, to post here. After we were done, Jerry remarked to me that I've got an ability to take these ripped up pieces of paper and make it into something whole. That's a whole other metaphor to explore, especially in light of my relationship to God.

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Friday, February 17, 2006
Wise words
Even though I had three books with me when visiting with a friend last weekend, I still managed to borrow two more proving the old saying, "The grass is always greener in someone else's library."

Onehouse

I saw this and had to laugh. And agree!

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(still more) Johari Results:

Arena

(known to self and others)

accepting, caring, independent, religious, responsive, searching

Blind Spot

(known only to others)

able, adaptable, bold, brave, cheerful, clever, complex, confident, dependable, energetic, extroverted, friendly, giving, happy, helpful, idealistic, intelligent, introverted, knowledgable, logical, loving, mature, nervous, observant, organised, proud, reflective, self-assertive, self-conscious, sentimental, shy, silly, spontaneous, sympathetic, tense, trustworthy, warm, witty

Façade

(known only to self)

Unknown

(known to nobody)

calm, dignified, ingenious, kind, modest, patient, powerful, quiet, relaxed, sensible, wise

All Percentages

able (10%) accepting (32%) adaptable (10%) bold (17%) brave (14%) calm (0%) caring (25%) cheerful (3%) clever (14%) complex (17%) confident (21%) dependable (7%) dignified (0%) energetic (14%) extroverted (3%) friendly (32%) giving (7%) happy (10%) helpful (3%) idealistic (32%) independent (32%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (42%) introverted (3%) kind (0%) knowledgable (21%) logical (3%) loving (3%) mature (3%) modest (0%) nervous (3%) observant (7%) organised (3%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (7%) quiet (0%) reflective (17%) relaxed (0%) religious (14%) responsive (3%) searching (35%) self-assertive (21%) self-conscious (14%) sensible (0%) sentimental (7%) shy (3%) silly (3%) spontaneous (7%) sympathetic (10%) tense (3%) trustworthy (3%) warm (10%) wise (0%) witty (17%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 15.2.2006, using data from 28 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or contribute to grrrl meets world's window.

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Who, me? Crabby?
Pardon the following crabalicious outburst.

Oy, it was bound to hit us sooner than later -- the oft-dreaded WINTER of Saskatchewan. Up until this point, all of us were in a global-warming induced state of denial about the true nature of the season. But, it's back! (in all of its -45 windchill glory)

This week was supposed to be a whole week full of earnest, uninterrupted writing on my thesis project. "Supposed to be" is the key phrase of the previous sentence. I could come up with any number of excuses here, but the fact is -- not much has been accomplished.

So, now, the quandry of every graduate student -- do I continue to stew in the ineptitude of own making or do I take a deep breath and plunge back into the morass of my developing argument?

Maybe continuing my rant on the commercialization of religon will do this grrrl some good. For the curious, here's a preview of the first little bit of chapter four, which I'm currently mired in working on.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006
US cuts funding for family planning clinics overseas:
President Bush, who acted on his first full day in office five years ago to deny federal aid to overseas groups that help women obtain abortions, is for the first time proposing sharp cuts in financing for international family planning programs that the White House had described as one of the best ways to prevent abortion.

Since 2001, the administration had adhered to Mr. Bush's commitment to maintain the financing of such programs at $425 million, the same level as in the last year of the Clinton administration.

But in the president's new budget proposal, financing would fall 18 percent, from $436 million this year to $357 million.

The cuts are stirring strong opposition from nonprofit groups and Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees responsible for foreign aid. They say the reductions would mean more unintended pregnancies for the world's poorest women, and more dangerous abortions in countries where the procedure is outlawed.

"It's ironic that an administration outwardly committed to reducing the incidence of abortion would take away valuable tools for preventing unwanted pregnancies," said Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York.

Ironic and infuriating.

More here (user/password: grrrlmeets) and another list of programs Bush wants to cut or kill in the next budget.

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You know it's winter in Saskatchewan when ...
Your husband leans in to kiss you, and he flinches in preparation for the static-electricity spark that is bound to result. (shocking, I know)

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Happy birthday, pops!

Daddy Mountie
Originally uploaded by becky b..


Love you! (and miss you much)

posted by Becky at