dismemberment

animal cookies: 1890s, england

source

originally, the "british animal crackers came in only a handful of shapes, the american menagerie boasted a circus of seventeen different creatures (though the cookie came in eighteen distinct shapes): bison, camel, cougar, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, hyena, kangaroo, lion, monkey, rhinoceros, seal, sheep, tiger, zebra, and sitting bear. the eighteenth shape was a walking bear.

"although a box of animal crackers contained twenty-two cookies, no child... was guaranteed a full representation of a zoo... the randomness added an element of expectancy to a gift box of animal crackers, a plus the company had not foreseen. and soon parents were writing to nabisco and revealing another unanticipated phenomenon (either trivial or of deep psychological import): children across american nibbled away at the animals in a definite order of dismemberment: back legs, forelegs, head, and lastly the body."

i totally ate my cookies the same way. creepy!

from charles panati's extraordinary origins of everyday things

school supply drive

this year i decided to do school supplies for my annual drive. below is the announcement i asked to be put into my dragon boating team's weekly email.

"It's that time again, when students start heading back to school. But do you know that many families cannot afford even basic classroom supplies? School on Wheels provides one-on-one tutoring for homeless children and they run entirely on volunteer support and donations.

"Stephanie will be collecting school supplies for for the month of August. Your donations will be put into backpacks and distributed by School on Wheels to kids in need in the Long Beach area. So the next time you go to Target or Office Supply, please pick up a pack of pencils or notebook paper!

"For a full list of needed supplies, please see the Student Wish List. You can also email Stephanie for more details of the drive. Thanks!"

originally i was wanted to do something for teachers or maybe for a long beach school district, but i found  school on wheels online and thought that it sounded like a great organization. they get no govt support and everything they do / get is thru donations.

btw, cool coincidence, after i emailed the above to my captains to be included in the weekly email, a captain messaged back saying that she's been volunteering thru school on wheels for the last 4-5 years. isn't she awesome? :)

and one wednesday after practice, a PINK came up to me and said her husband is on the school on wheels board. small world!

btw, if you're interested in donating things, i've extended the drive thru the end of september since i've been missing a lot of practices lately.

god vs gay?

whether or not the bible is pro- or anti-gay, i don't understand what the bible has to do with our government's laws. we don't have an official religion; that would be unconstitutional. so why should our government cater to the current religious majority? you may think that your religion is correct, but others think theirs is correct. either way, they don't force you to take communion, make a hajj, get cremated, or not eat animals. besides, christianity can't even agree on whether or not homosexuality is wrong! some experts say yes, some say no. it isn't exactly clear cut, like how in the ten commandments god forbids you to murder.


keep religion out of our government, and especially out of my bedroom! and if you keep your religion out of my bedroom, i promise to keep mine out of yours.

drinking alone

i think people take this "you're an alcoholic if you drink alone" business waaaaay too seriously. i'm going to say right here and now: just because you drink alone, you are not an alcoholic. duh!!! you're most likely an alcoholic if you have a constant physical or psychological yearning for alcohol. what the hell difference does it make if  you're alone or in a group?!

and on a related note, it seems to me that i have a couple friends won't drink if no one else drinks. which doesn't make any sense to me. if you want an alcoholic beverage, have one. maybe this is because i'm not purely a social drinker. for many years i abstained completely. and i had a strong enough will that people couldn't "convince" me to get a drink if i didn't want one. these days, i drink occasionally. but only when i feel like it. and if i feel like it, i don't understand how your getting a coke should deter me from ordering a martini.

explicit reference

george saunders - bill clinton, public citizen

"the book of james says faith without works is dead," [bill clinton] says. "'show me your works and i will know your faith,' you know? while there is no explicit reference to, let's say, homosexuality in the new testament, no explicit reference to abortion, there are hundreds and hundreds of reference to he imperative of acting to help people who are in genuine need, who are less fortunate than you, whom you can help, and you're supposed to do it without regard to your own economic or social standing. the only test is whether you can make a difference in someone else's life without disadvantaging or really hurting someone in your circle of primary responsibility, you know, your family."

male birth control

huzzah! there is a promising new method of male birth control in the form of an oral contraceptive. (there is a gel that sounds pretty interesting, but i know i'd be more interested in a pill) i think this is super fabulous and i've always wondered why there wasn't a pill for men.

if you don't want a kid, and you're sleeping with random people, can you really trust them when they say they're on the pill? no, you cannot. so you should definitely wear a condom! altho everyone knows that doesn't feel as good and they have a higher instance of not working. so then what? well, you can be on the pill too!

some talk hows have been saying really sexist things about men regarding this pill. they seem to believe that women are more responsible and that you "can't trust a man to remember to take the pill." but that's bullshit. if a man gets on the pill he probably wants to be on it, so he'll probably try to remember to take it -- just like women! and if generalizations are to be believed, more men then women don't want kids. so they should, then, more likely want to be able to prevent pregnancies, right? either way, i think this is a great opportunity for men to have more control over their reproductive lives.

i don't know if it was just that rip and i were in a stable relationship, but when i was on the pill, i asked him to remind me about it every day. i felt like it was his responsibility too. it's not just that i don't want a baby; we don't want a baby.

the male birth control pill is a great way for both partners to be involved. you can both be on the pill so if one of you forgets, you've got backup. rather than saddling one person with the whole burden, you are both being responsible for pregnancy prevention.

not necessarily

george saunders - bill clinton, public citizen

"the earth is not necessarily made for people to live on and is always trying to kill us off"

donor rights

recently the view profiled a woman who used a sperm bank to get pregnant. years later she and her son tracked down the donor, who did not want to be contacted. eventually the donor's sister called back and told the woman that several members of their family had died of the same inheritable genetic disease. the son was tested, and it turned out he had the same defect. he has since had corrective surgery, but he will need screenings every year.

the mother now wants a federal law requiring sperm donors to report major changes in medical history. she mentioned that there is another state that requires, once the child turns 18, for the donor's medical history and contact info be released. while i do think that a person is entitled to their medical history, i don't know that they are entitled to their knowing their genetic parents.

i think a lot of people put their kids up for adoption or donate genetic material and really just don't want to know about it afterwards. if i were raped and decided to have the baby but not keep it, i don't think i would want this child finding me later. i'm okay with giving them updated medical history, as i think they have a right to stay physically healthy, but i think that i have a right to privacy, because your emotional needs to not trump mine.

if the govt sent me a form every year asking for changes in medical history, there could also be a yes / no box: do you want us to release your contact info should the recipient of your genes want it? i think this would be a pretty easy way for me to attempt to keep my identity hidden, and every year i would be asked the same question should i change my mind.


(new pornographers - my rights versus yours)

darkness

excerpt from lord byron - darkness

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars

Did wander darkling in the eternal space...

Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day,

And men forgot their passions in the dread

Of this their desolation; and all hearts

Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light...

lb recap

1. socow did not medal this year, but we went up a division, from mixed IIIC to IIIBB. even more impressive? we got 4th place; only one away from medalling! this year was weird cause we actually had too many paddlers and we had to ask someone to not compete (which is fine since he only had 1 practice anyway). also, i decided to not paddle our 200m since i missed 1.5 practices (food poisoning and steering clinic), but i'm really happy because it meant others got to paddle more. also, i think it sets a good example, like, see, not even captains are exempt from the attendance rule! (a lot of our team had 5 or 6 practices.) also, i helped marshal a bit, which was nice.

2. boston scientific did pretty well, considering. they were the more stressful of my teams this year. i didn't realize that they wouldn't take it seriously (probably because they're a corporate team). so lots of people came and left as the day progressed. in other words, i couldn't do a seating chart until just before marshaling.  also for each race we had ~4 people who had never paddled before. it was crazy! i tried to teach them during marshaling, but i forgot for our 2nd race and actually taught them on the water as we were paddling to the start line. sheesh! i think everyone had fun tho, and we did not place last in all our races. :)

3. space dragons did FABULOUSLY! red won gold in both 500, and 200m. women, open, and masters also medalled. (btw, did you know that last year guppies got gold in the 500m?) btw, i didn't paddle for them; they had too many ladies already. oh well, i rejoice in their amazingness!

4. what i'm most happy about this year is the steers. none of the major incidents involved long beach steers. YAY!!! there were a few minor collisions (heads clipping tails) which were caused by lb steers, but nothing serious. also, no one was reported to me as messing up. i had to send out lots of warning emails last year! alex told me that last year he was upset with me because of so many lb steers' incidents, but this year he could see the improvement. i'm SO happy. :) obviously i can't take much credit since i'm not steering for everyone, or even testing everyone, but this program that i help run is working! ::knock on wood:: also, it's getting bigger now too. besides just long beach, this year we've tested people from la harbor, nac, and ucsd. and all these people know that they don't have to get tested, they just wanted to. seriously. it's so awesome. :)

maintain

kurt vonnegut - hocus pocus

"another flaw in the human character is that everyone wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance."

chivalry is sexist

laura stampler's - men don't recognize "benevolent" sexism

SUPER interesting article because i've argued with people about so-called chivalry, or, as labeled in the article: benevolent sexism. on dictionary.com, chivalry is defined as (besides the stuff about knights): "courteous behaviour, esp towards women." ...doesn't that right there indicate a certain amount of discrimination against men? which is, duh, sexist.

"Criticism focused on the researchers asking participants to identify seemingly well-intended male behavior as discriminatory." but just because it's well intended doesn't mean it's not sexist. back in the day, people didn't allow girls to attend school because they thought girls were too stupid and therefore saw no reason to stress them out over writing and arithmetic and such. for various other reasons, certain other groups of people were sterilized, taken away from their families, institutionalized, or even killed, all for their own "good."

so the next time you're about to offer a bit of polite help to a woman, first ask yourself: "would i be doing the same thing for a man?" hopefully the answer is yes. because we should be more thoughtful and considerate to all others, regardless of their sex.