Thursday, August 13, 2009

Serious Things

A woman in Raleigh wants to play tennis against men, but the men don't want to be beat.  She's suing the city alleging discrimination.

" 'One said he had a jealous wife, and he couldn't play females," Griffin said. "Another said he heard I made people run too much.' "

One of the commenters said, and I'm quoting here:

"Yes, it is a very serious thing to be in the same company as a woman other than your wife, when your wife is not around. Some people choose to avoid that kind of temptation."

There are some scary weird people in the world.



Monday, July 13, 2009

Alas, ComicCon



I won't be going to ComicCon this year.  I'm especially disappointed since I read that one of my favorite authors will be going this year, and he almost never does.

And being in San Diego instead of Texas in July?  It sucks that there're no beaches in North Texas.  The LOW tomorrow will be 83.

Maybe next year.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Google Voice















I signed up for an invite for Google Voice a couple of weeks ago, and they sent it to me on June 26th.  So far I like it a lot.  It's got one number that people can call and that you can make forward to all of your phones.  It's got voice mail transcription, which in the only test so far (of mine) worked great. 


And apparently you can also put a widget on your blog and people can call you!  That should be interesting, to say the least.  I'll post more when I've tested it more.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Anniversary

















Mom, 1948.



It's been two years since my mom died, and I still think about her every day. I have a hard time watching shows on TV that show people in hospital beds. It almost always makes me cry. Last week the TNT show The Closer had the main character's cat get sick and die, and that made me cry too. I'm tired of crying already.

Sometimes I almost wish I could believe in heaven. I don't, and I know that when people say that my mom's in a better place that they mean well, but it doesn't make me feel better. I can't convince myself now that she's gone that there is some higher plane. How does that make people feel better? I'm not being snarky, that's a real question.
I've talked to one sister on the phone, and she's at home today so as not to deal with work. I'm trying to call the other one to go see my dad. I want to be there with him, but avoidance is sooo attractive. The bubba's out of town, so I'll try to call him later so as not to get him all sad at work.

I'm so petty. I've got all these jealousies and mean emotions right now too. People suck. Me included.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Education Shortage


"The arts are not pretty bulletin boards.
They are not turkeys and bunny rabbits.
They are not frivolous entertainment.
The arts are our humanity.
They are the languages of civilization through which we express our fears, our anxieties, our hungers, our struggles, our hopes.
They are systems of meaning that have real and important utility, which is why schools that give students the means and encouragement to explore these realms provide a better education."
Charles Fowler


Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers tells a frightening story. He's right that our educational foundation is being eroded, and it's happening at the high school and elementary level as well. He's concerned about loss of science education, but I'm concerned about losing arts education.

In the school district where I work, one of our Arts administrators was just cut and must now teach full time. That means no advocate for visual arts, no concerted effort to normalize curriculum, and even less funds for advocacy than before. Many of the districts around are in a hiring freeze. If anyone leaves my school, they will not be replaced unless someone within the district can be found.


In the district where I used to teach, they are cutting HALF of the elementary art teachers so that each teacher at elementary level now has to travel between two schools. That means 1200 students instead of 600, and each student would now receive 1 hour of visual art every two weeks instead of 1 hour every week. That district had only recently allotted each school a whole teacher.


One of Mr. Myers commenters, in rightly being concerned about the loss of science classes, advocates putting arts classes on the chopping block instead.

Commenter ZK says: "What does "Liberal Arts" mean? It sounds like something that could do with cutting, rather than geology. . . [universities] persist in "teaching" stupid subjects that only exist so that thick/lazy/disinterested kids can get a degree. . . " and then calls liberal arts, or to be fair parts of it, "meaningless twaddle."

And commenter Justin says: "Liberal arts? Get rid of some absurd department/course like "Women's studies" or "Urban Studies". Any decent social studies program should include thorough coverage of women and urban people, but to make seperate (sic) degrees out of them is simply bizarre."*

I don't see why this should be an either/or situation. NONE of these things should be cut, and education institutions across the country, colleges and public elementary/high schools are experiencing cuts. And Governor (P)Rick Perry has apparently said that he will reject at least some of the stimulus money in unemployment benefits, so who knows who else he'll throw under the bus. I live in a state filled with idiots, and it makes me sad. **



*Unfortunately the conversation gets derailed by someone named Erasmus who ridicules all the liberal arts and can only see merits in "hard sciences" but doesn't apply the same rigorous attention to detail in his own comments and citations as you might expect from a scientist.

**Not least because the Texas Legislature is still debating about whether or not to include creationism in the science curriculum.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Can you say 'creepy'?



















This is gross. And, no, it's not funny, and yes, I do think that this is something that I should worry about.

In case you can't read it, it says:
"iGirl - She Obeys" and it gets worse from there.
"Less than the price of a cup of coffee or a beer."

I didn't make it up, it's actually on iTunes.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

24

I enjoy Jack Bauer's adventures, and I'm pretty good with suspension of disbelief, but please.

ONE firewall that controls/limits access to ALL of our infrastructure systems?

The clumsiest exposition EVAR.
"Gee, Jack, we both know this information about the current plot, but let me just say it awkwardly for the benefit of the stupid viewer."
"No problem, Chloe.  By the way, did you know that I tortured people and I'M NOT SORRY, even though I've said that twice in every episode so far?"