birth control

i’ve been known to get horribly off track and read really random blog articles that have nothing to do with my real life.

… like reading pregnancy blogs when i’m not pregnant, nor trying to get pregnant.

anyway, sometimes i send tim links like this.

the message of the email suggested that we spend our next date night going out to buy condoms.

he rolled his eyes (i know this because i emailed him while sitting next to him on the couch.  we’re so high-tech) and said, ‘really babe?’  i think this means that he loves me and will read this article and subsequently agree to adopt a child or two or four or seven to protect my vagina and the rest of my body from complete trauma.

 

 

fear

How much of your time and effort goes into protecting yourself from the things you fear?

And how much is spent serving your muse and your tribe and your potential?

– Seth Godin

ah, seth strikes again with brilliance.

i wonder how much my life would change if i could identify how much energy i was spending on protecting myself… i bet it would change a lot, given my generally anxious nature.

so thought-provoking.

association

Who you hang out with determines what you dream about and what you collide with.

And the collisions and the dreams lead to your changes.

And the changes are what you become.

Change the outcome by changing your circle.

how true.

i’m a big fan of seth godin and his blog!

a dose of feminism

those of you who know me know that i love jezebel. well, i saw this comment this morning, and of course it made me insta-happy.  yay for feminist men 🙂

I used to have a line. I’m from Philadelphia, land of Ben Franklin, so I’m full of little lines. “I’m a feminist in the oldest sense of the word, in that I have nothing in particular against women.”
It’s a funny line, but I’ve decided to retire it.
I’m having a soul-searching kind of morning, ladies. I’m realizing that, even though I’m a slightly-to-the-right-of Marx, Jezebel-reading, died in the wool rabble-rousing despiser of the patriarchy that I was born into, I have still underestimated what you all go through on a day-to-day basis. Not completely, mind you. I’ve long known what advantages I’ve had. I do not have to worry about my physical safety on a simple walk home, nor about garnering equal pay. I do not feel the pressure to “look the part” (because frankly I am the part). Men are not divided and conquered by the hiding-in-plain-sight forces of consumer culture as women have been from the start. Men do not have to worry about “reverse sexism” because, like it’s equally specious counterpart “reverse racism”, it doesn’t exist because true power only resides in the other party (though some men all over internet message boards this week are clinging to the idea). I’ve always been ready to admit that I’d never trade places with a woman – it’s simply too hard of a life for me. I’m weak. I’m able to be weak and still thrive, because I’m a man. That’s how the game is set up and I’ve taken advantage of it.
Yet, the past few months and especially the last week has taught me that I underestimated this- my every thought, question, conviction, and concern isn’t automatically subject to being undercut. When you consider how hard women have to fight to develop a certain amount of agency, to be looked at as worthy of being heard, before they can even get started on real work, it’s amazing that any of you are able to go beyond that and make a real difference in our crumbling culture and civilization.
So do me a favor – next time one of you is annoying me and I tell you to shut the fuck up, look me right back in the eyes and say “I have been shutting the fuck up. Now it’s your turn.” I swear to god I’ll listen.

it was in reply to this post.

olympics & gender equality

In case you haven’t heard yet because you’re one of those New York City tunnel dwellers or you’re exclusively a Winter Olympics person, the U.S. women’s teams at this summer’s games have cleaned up, accounting for 56 percent of all Team USA’s medals, and 66 percent of its golds. Their success is being touted as a big step towards even greater gender equality in sports, and, what’s more, they’ve succeeded in sports traditionally dominated by men, such as boxing, an event the U.S. men, for the first time ever, failed to medal in.

(source)

and…

Four decades after the passage of Title IX, U.S. Olympic officials credit the federal gender-equity law for encouraging girls to play sports in school and broadening the talent base from which national coaches can recruit.

(source)

nothing like a little ‘girl power’ to kick-off the week.  although, i still have to see the spice girls’ performance from last night.  i’m expecting nothing short of  a fantastic show.

gaining perspective

i love good articles. well, i consider them to be good.  basically, i really enjoy any article that makes me view the world or my life just a tiny bit differently.  sometimes i share these in small doses, but i thought today i’d share a few.  there are so many good things out there to read, people!

here are some articles i especially like today:

‘married happily, with issues‘ – it’s not always perfect, but it’s all about commitment.  this is a long and fantastic article.

‘beyond 7 billion‘ on the world’s population and what that means to each of us.

‘unprotected‘ – a humorous piece from the new yorker (thanks for sharing, laura!)

‘is america crazy? 10 reasons it might be‘ ah, america.

… that’s all for today, folks!  happy reading  🙂

 

read: ‘spoiled rotten’

With the exception of the imperial offspring of the Ming dynasty and the dauphins of pre-Revolutionary France, contemporary American kids may represent the most indulged young people in the history of the world. It’s not just that they’ve been given unprecedented amounts of stuff—clothes, toys, cameras, skis, computers, televisions, cell phones, PlayStations, iPods. (The market for Burberry Baby and other forms of kiddie “couture” has reportedly been growing by ten per cent a year.) They’ve also been granted unprecedented authority. “Parents want their kids’ approval, a reversal of the past ideal of children striving for their parents’ approval,” Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, both professors of psychology, have written. In many middle-class families, children have one, two, sometimes three adults at their beck and call. This is a social experiment on a grand scale, and a growing number of adults fear that it isn’t working out so well: according to one poll, commissioned by Time and CNN, two-thirds of American parents think that their children are spoiled.

– Elizabeth Kolbert

i’m not a parent (or even thinking of becoming one right now), but i loved this article – and generally appreciate any article related to families/relationships/sociology/psychology…

it’s worth a read  🙂

want to waste some time?

never have i ever wondered how much i am worth.

UNTIL i found this site that could tell me!

it turns out i am worth $2,545,602.  so, if anyone has plans to kidnap me, that should probably be my ransom.

(and i’m sure tim would be more than willing to pay it to get me back.)

… as a side note: you will need to do an IQ test and an ‘am i dumb‘ test to figure out how much you’re worth.  (the links are in the test)  it turns out, i’m dumber than i thought with a score of 21/25 but i have an IQ (according to this test) of 126.

happy testing!

goodbye, facebook app

(source)

i decided to delete the facebook app from my phone.  no, this is not a big life change; however, i see it leading to increased happiness, so i thought i’d share! (no pun intended)

basically, i found that i was using facebook too much to fill up ‘waiting’ time between events.  instead, i could be reading a book or catching up on news or playing with my dog.

plus, it has always been a pet peeve of mine that when i’m hanging out with friends, they’re checking facebook.  hello people, focus on real life!  i do not desire to be ‘that person,’ so now i won’t be!

cheers to positive life changes, no matter how small  🙂

where does trust come from?

Hint: it never comes from the good times and from the easy projects.

We trust people because they showed up when it wasn’t convenient, because they told the truth when it was easier to lie and because they kept a promise when they could have gotten away with breaking it.

Every tough time and every pressured project is another opportunity to earn the trust of someone you care about.

– Seth Godin (i am a bit obsessed with his blog)