In Which the Protagonist Gets Her Head On Straight

OK, feeling better. Sometimes you have to get your head out of your ass, remove your own insecurities from the situation, and get your shit together.

Tra-la.

Blogging Break

I'll be taking a blogging break for the rest of the week.

See you all Monday.

At Least My Aim's Improving...

Went shooting with a friend on Saturday:




He doesn't make fun of my aim anymore.

The 50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2007

Always makes me happy to see so many successful women in one place.

Reminds me that I don't see that kind of grouping often.

Sugar Sugar

"Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling -- crucial for memory formation -- would stop working in Alzheimer's disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant."

I wouldn't be surprised.

1943 Guide to Hiring Women

Pure entertainment.

Here's an excerpt from the July 1943 issue of Transportation Magazine - some tips for male supervisors looking to hire women.

"Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees: There's no longer any question whether transit companies should hire women for jobs formerly held by men. The draft and manpower shortage has settled that point. The important things now are to select the most efficient women available and how to use them to the best advantage.

Here are eleven helpful tips on the subject from Western Properties:

1. Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It's always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

3. General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time the fact that a minute or two lost here and there makes serious inroads on schedules. Until this point is gotten across, service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they'll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can't shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl's husband or father may swear vociferously, she'll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in operator's uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can't be stressed too much in keeping women happy."

Yummy yummy.

Positive Affirmation of the Day

Half-coherent personal life dialogue this morning:

Me: I hate emotions. They're bad.

Stephanie: They're not bad. You're just not used to them.

Today's Philosophy

Ug.

That was tough, yo.

The Most Untranslatable Words

Scholars and professional translators have determined that "ilunga" -- a word in the Bantu language of Tshiluba for a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time; to tolerate it a second time; but never a third time -- is the "most untranslatable word in the world. "Shlimazl", a Yiddish word for a chronically unlucky person, and "radioukacz", a Polish word for a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain, ran a close second and third. The most untranslatable word in the English language was voted to be "plenipotentiary", which means a special ambassador or envoy, invested with full powers.

Router Running

Router went out on Friday. There's been enough going on that I didn't actually miss it all that much. I don't know which I found more amusing: that we couldn't live more than 2 days without one (Steph and the Old Man picked it up today), or that once I logged back in, nothing of interest appeared to have happened anywhere the entire two days.

Perhaps the world is slowing down.

Whether You Acknowledge it or Not...

Yes, you take it with you.

Being top of the pile means that whites are peculiarly and uniquely insensitive to race and racism, and the power relations this involves. We are invariably the beneficiaries, never the victims. Even when well-meaning, we remain strangely ignorant. The clout enjoyed by whites does not reside simply in an abstraction - western societies - but in the skin of each and every one of us. Whether we like it or not, in every corner of the planet we enjoy an extraordinary personal power bestowed by our colour. It is something we are largely oblivious of, and consequently take for granted, irrespective of whether we are liberal or reactionary, backpackers, tourists or expatriate businessmen.

I Really Should Get Back to Writing...

Really, really.

I need to find some angst to funnel. I know it's there. I've just been too good at distracting myself to deal with it.

I've got to review my writing schedule for the year, too. Black Desert isn't going to get done all by itself, and right now I open it up every day and it just sits there and stares at me. It's like that world is a thousand miles and three lifetimes away.

Maybe I should distract myself with some other writing project.

I feel sort of adrift, writing-wise, these days. Been that way since mid-August, which may not sound like a long time for some of you, but not writing, for me, is really tough. I'm usually a much saner, clear-headed person when the words come.

Joanna, Fire

And of course, her name is Joanna....

The Honesty Divide: Is Brutal Honesty Brave or Hysterical? Check Your Gender

None of these revelations [from men] of personal weakness seem to undercut the esteem in which these male critics are held. Nor has there been expressed an air of disappointment that they failed to live up to some bloodless, bileless ideal of who they are. Because stoicism is expected of men, their personal revelations -- the more embarrassing the better -- register as brave and honest. When women do it, they are merely confirming the worst suspicions about their gender. How, then, is a woman to write honestly of her experiences that do conform to gender expectations? If she is to maintain respect in public realms, must her public evocation of her private life be a lifelong performance? A series of lies, or at least omissions, constructed to leave an impression of unyielding strength and impenetrability?

To sum up: "....it's time we grew up and realized that it is possible to exhibit both intellectual strength and personal weakness simultaneously."

Amen.

Classic Cards to Know and Love

More here.

Grow Island

I'm getting better. I beat this one in, like, an hour.

And, By the Way...

The podiatrist cleared me for kickboxing.

I can start up again next week!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Things here have been all quiet on the western front, mainly because I've been out and about a whole lot. I knew there had been some sort of odd turn when I realized that I hadn't read my LJ list in several days and didn't particularly miss it. I finally understood that what keeps me spending loads of time on the internet is, often, lonliness.

And I've been desperately lonely for a long time.

David and I bowed out of our year-long distance relationship a couple weeks before I went to Switzerland, and even so, we spent a grand time together there as friends. Though the ending of the relationship wasn't my first choice, I respect and understand his decision. I think you can build a mutually fulfilling relationship over distance, but both people have to want to do that, and have to want to work at it, and the passion for doing that was, alas, one-sided.

So it goes. Nobody you can blame for that.

So you get up. You rebuild.

And in this case, what that means is that I've been out a lot doing this bizarre "dating" thing that, apparently, the majority of people do in this country.

"Dating"... ha ha.

When was the last time I actually fucking "dated"? I mean, really?

You know, I'm so bad at "dating." If somebody makes it past three dates, it's either cause I'm serious or... well, OK, really, it's only cause I'm serious. Or bizarrely attracted to them even though I know we're not good for each other.

I'd like to say that it concerns me that I don't "get to know" more people, but you know, I get to know a lot of people everyday - at work, on line, at cons - I figure those are as much casual dating experiences as actual dating, only without the uncomfortable "interview-like" atmosphere of a first date, which I appreciate (there is nothing, NOTHING worse than one of those first-date "interviews"). I think my preference is always to be friends first. Then there's less pressure, and you're already familiar with some of the more standard quirks by the time you end up making out.

Anyhow, lovely as it's been to get around Dayton and actually eat out and see shows, I've come to realize that DATING IS REALLY EXPENSIVE.

Sure, splitting most expenses while traveling to see your SO is also pretty fucking expensive four times a year, but going out three times a week? Pretty fucking expensive. Expensive: all the time.

But!

But.

Hanging with somebody and laughing ridiculously all the time?

Having somebody around who holds your hand?

Engaging in Shakespearean-like insult wars?

But anyway, dating = good but expensive.

Also, dating = less writing time.

But that's OK, because the dating is distracting me from the cold hard fact that my book's on the examining table in two particular places right now, and it's something I have no interest in dwelling on. Or thinking about. Or, in fact, writing about.

So I'm going to eat some Chipotle, read some books, and go be silly somewhere.

Group Conformity

One of my fav social experiments:

Asch conformity experiments

Demonstrating the power of one person speaking up and making a fuss. Groups need the impulsive individuals to keep them honest. This is why I speak up and talk back.

If you don't, it's very possible that no one else will.

If you do speak, it's very likely somebody else will stand up, too.

Sometimes you have to have courage because others don't.