A New Game

Today, let's keep it lighter:

Because xkcd did a picture this way, someone put together a place to try using only the 1,000 most used words. I wrote this bit using it. I promise it is harder than you would think. I wanted to use it to explain my paper but I can't write with the right meaning of words. God's pain, God feels bad, God feeling things, and things change God don't quite cut it. This is more straight forward than the one at xkcd, but can you guess from that what it might be about?

[Note: xkcd isn't one of the 1,000 most common words, but I needed to give credit!]

On Luminous Geckos

Most of the time when I am on my soapboxes online -- here, Facebook, Pintrest -- I am on them because they are fun places to be.  Not that I see the problems as fun, but I like a good fight.  Sometimes, however, the problem part hits home, and I remember I am not passionate about these things because it is a good fight.  I am passionate because this is real.  It's the difference between a midnight bathroom debate about abortion with a hallmate who is swiftly becoming a best friend and standing outside a abortion facility praying for the scared women and the men who don't know another way to love them.

The abortion soapbox is made real every week in that way.  Today, I want to make the feminist soapbox real.  I have two quick reads to do so -- two of the best reads I've stumbled across (one through Julia and one by following links from Unequally Yoked) on this subject.

The first piece is an anecdote about a Luminuously Beautiful Woman and an Awkward Dude.  The second is a parable about a dog and a gecko to explain the concept of "male privilege."  Read these first -- they are good reads, I promise (though you will have to excuse the profanity).  All educated?  Good!

I have to admit, when I read the Luminous story, I stopped to try to figure out The Question, and I couldn't.  It bothered me for a bit until I fully processed the story and The Question -- and then I realized that I hadn't been able to figure out The Question, because I assumed the answer.  It didn't need to be asked.  As soon as Luminous started placing physical barriers (such as Dr. Glass) between herself and Awkward Dude, I realized that this guy was a serious threat to her safety.  We use emotional and social barriers to deal with awkward; we use physical barriers to deal with danger.

Hopefully you can see the connection between Luminous and the gecko.  I like both these pieces because they put into words what I had previously grasped intuitively and brought out explicitly what I have experienced but never crystallized into coherent thoughts.  They also show why, despite the substantial progress feminists have made since the early 1900s, more work is needed.

Yet Another HHS Update

I haven't posted about the HHS mandate recently, though believe you me it has been in the background or forefront of my mind.  I am both a beneficiary and a victim of Obamacare: I stayed on my father's policy later than would have been allowed, but now I am about to embark on my own healthcare voyage.  Because of the contraceptive mandate, my school has dropped student coverage, which was going to be my route.  In the wake of the elections, I've had a hard time not being depressed by the anti-life state of the nation.

Now, however, cases are starting to hit courts and courts are starting to give answers.  Here's an article about a Bible-publishing company who won their case... though I am sure it's not the end of the story for them.  And it's definitely not for others (such as Hobby Lobby) who lost and are appealing.  The rationale for decisions, based on the limited information from these two articles, seems to be that the courts want to exempt religious organizations but not religious employers (i.e. individuals) from providing contraception.

In Honor of Papers

As well as some grammatical mistakes that have hurt my heart lately:

Of course language is not an infallible guide, but it contains, with all its defects, a good deal of stored insight and experience. If you begin by flouting it, it has a way of avenging itself later on. 

~CS Lewis, The Four Loves

On the Opposite End

About a year ago, I witnessed a phenomenon of water not freezing in the cold, then suddenly freezing when disturbed.  Today I learned about an opposite phenomenon: water exploding in the microwave!  How cool is this?  (Yes, it was Sunday brunch conversation.  Yes, I am from a family of nerds. I also learned about the state of matter of Jello and the Bose-Einstein condensate.  Please tell me you want my life.)

Day-Maker #77

Five hour (plus traffic) road trips are so much more bearable with another human being in the car.  Especially when that other human being is a great conversationalist.