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Muffins of Doom

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[
Posted on February 05, 2010 @ 12:29 am
]
Today, I got the first set of data for my senior research project. I feel so accomplished!

(Gotta analyze it tomorrow. Hopefully it says what my PI and I think it says.)
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[
Posted on January 15, 2010 @ 11:14 am
]
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/is-refusing-bed-rest-a-crime/

...There's just so many things wrong with this that I can't even list them. But here's a few:

1) It's very sad that we live in a society where doctors either need to (or are required to by the hospital they work in) report these sorts of things.

2) Hey, FL, women aren't just state-controlled baby incubators. Additionally, complications such as this are often the body's way of getting rid of a bigger, harder to detect problem. For all they know, the baby was already dead when she started having problems.

3) Why is it that the unborn fetus was more important than the already-living family at home?

I really, really hope there's more to the story than is stated here (and why is this under 'Adventures in Parenting'?) As it stands, it's...kind of terrifying.
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[
Posted on December 23, 2009 @ 1:10 am
]
I don't have the energy to rant about Stupak/Nelson. Instead, a happy post!
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/what_happened/Magic_at_the_Aramingo_Diner.html

Small acts. It's amazing what they can do.
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[
Posted on December 14, 2009 @ 11:20 pm
]
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/purcell/s_656306.html

lol what?
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[
Posted on November 20, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
]
Rape prevention programs at Case orientations are a joke. At least, they were when I was a freshman, and I doubt they've changed significantly (though I'll have to make a point of asking some of my freshman friends.)

When I was a freshman, the version of rape prevention we got was a skit where a girl was attacked by her boyfriend (props to Case for going the boyfriend route and not the stranger route). She eventually managed to kick him off her and get away. They then opened it up to the audience for comments and questions.

Frankly, in my freshman (and bubbled) naivete, I was shocked when the women from the audience started attacking the girl from the skit. "You shouldn't have let him in," they said. "You shouldn't have drank." "You shouldn't have consented to kissing." "You should have said no louder." "You should take self-defense lessons to prevent a man from ever doing that to you." It made me see red.

(And for the record: As someone with a black belt, I recognize that despite my skill, it is still possible for someone to overpower me. This especially goes for someone much stronger/larger or for if I'm ever drunk. I don't know what martial arts classes that young woman from the audience had been taking, but someone has a seriously inflated idea of her prowess. I don't care if she's the best in the world, there's always a situation where someone will be better/faster/stronger than you.)

What made me even more disgusted was that this was where the administration left it. No remarks towards the men on how to play their part in preventing rape. No education on stopping victim-blaming. Just "ladies, don't drink, don't walk outside by yourselves, don't wear clothes that don't belong in a nunnery, etc." And furthermore, no education on males being raped. It was overall a terrible dialogue and a disservice to the freshmen.

I don't know what would work. I just know that this isn't it.

As a side note, the "sex and dating" column in our student newspaper is a joke. Granted, pretty much our entire newspaper is a joke, but this column particularly so. One person is making a point of writing in every week against this column. He has a point, but a very flawed way of proving it--the virgin/whore complex doesn't prove your point, buddy. I may have to start doing the same. This column has the potential to do a lot of good, and I'm sad it's being wasted on idiocy.

Their numbers on how much birth control costs were also completely off. I'd dance for joy if mine only cost $10/month. If you're going to make a point about the relative cheapness of condoms vs pills/shots/whatever, at least get proper numbers, ladies.
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[
Posted on November 12, 2009 @ 9:28 am
]
"But generally, courts give local administrators great latitude. In Marion County, Fla., students must dress “in keeping with their gender.” Last spring, when a boy came to school wearing high-heeled boots, a stuffed bra, and a V-neck T-shirt, he was sent home to change."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/fashion/08cross.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2

Hey folks, in case you forgot, "sex" and "gender" are two entirely different things.  Sex is biological, gender is social. For all you know, he was dressed in keeping with his gender as he understands it.

I applaud the fact that today's youth is allowing 'gender-bending.' Bravo, us.
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I'm going to facepalm so, so hard... [
Posted on November 10, 2009 @ 11:32 am
]
"Unlike the show, which allowed the men to emerge occasionally from the sidelines with lines of actual dialogue, the male characters in the movie stand idly by, either smiling or stripping, reduced to playing sock puppets in a Punch-free Judy and Judy (times two) show. I’m all for the female gaze, but, gee, it’s also nice to talk — and listen — to men, too."
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/movies/30sex.html?th&emc=th

Bit late on that, but I never watched Sex in the City and thus did not care about reading reviews of it. I got this off of the xkcd guy's blog (which, incidentally, has a thread that ALSO makes me facepalm.)  But honestly?  Hey reviewer, go pick up any other movie, TV show, or video game.  You'll probably find what you're looking for.  In the meantime, shut the fuck up.

Edit: From the thread in the xkcd guy's blog that I referenced: "Ass-kicking female heroes cannot be done very well because they’re just not very realistic. You either have to camp it up all the way (Charlie’s Angels) or work a damsel-in-distress twist halfway into it (Matrix Reloaded) for it to have any resonance with audiences. Women just don’t kick ass in the real world, so portraying otherwise on-screen fails to engage audiences."
I can think of quite a few women who would disagree with you there, buddy.
 
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[
Posted on November 05, 2009 @ 11:02 am
]
After this semester, I will be 16 credit hours away from graduating. If I really wanted to, I could graduate an entire year early.

I'm probably not going to, but it's nice to know.
 
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[
Posted on October 22, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
]
"I'm telling you this not to excuse behavior, but this was a disaster waiting to happen," Salant said. "...There was a dynamic at work here. There were things going on here. It doesn't make the respondents any less worthy of blame but what it does mean is I have to determine whether what we have here is sexual predators or respondents who acted horribly. ...They did not get that when a girl is intoxicated and presents herself in that manner you do not take advantage."
http://www.gazette.net/stories/10212009/rocknew222349_32522.shtml

Excuse me?  I knew at 15 that it is considered rape when the girl (or boy, not being sexist here) is too intoxicated to consent.  Maybe it's because I'm female that I knew this? I don't know, but what I do know is that anyone old enough to use his or her genitals for sex is old enough to know what constitutes rape.  I don't know what they're teaching these boys if they don't know that, but they're long past due to learn.

Additionally, it doesn't seem like she went up to them and said "let's have sex." What apparently happened, and I quote, is that they "carried her into a bathroom, where the third boy, then 16, was waiting, Wechsler said. They undressed her, had sex with her and left her on the floor."

I believe the reasoning for probation was "they've ruined one life, but they don't deserve to have their lives also ruined."  I'm pretty sure there's a few more steps in between probation and having one's life ruined.

Gah.  Now I'm angry.
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Scheduling frustrations [
Posted on October 22, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
]
I feel like I'm running out of classes to take for my major.  This is partially compounded by the fact that almost all of the classes for my major that I can take next semester meet at the same time...actually, the majority of the courses I want to take meet at the same time.

This is annoying.
 
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[
Posted on October 09, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
]
"Hate crimes legislation enacted after King's assassination defined hate crimes as those carried out on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin. It also limits the scope of activities that would trigger federal involvement.

The proposed expansion would include crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It eases restrictions on federally protected activities."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-10-08-gay-hatecrime-bill_N.htm

I can't wait to see the gyrations they go through to make sure rape isn't classified as a hate crime. Because she wanted it, don'tcha know, and who is she to be denying a man sex anyway?
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[
Posted on October 04, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
]
Every time I say I don't want children, without fail, someone tells me I will change my mind when I'm older/I meet the right man. Oddly, 99% of the time, the person saying this is a male.  I think maybe two or three times it's been a female telling me this (and one was my mother, so she doesn't count).

I just find it funny that it's always males (including men my own age) telling me that one day my biological clock will kick in , whereas women are more likely to either agree with me or just not comment.
 
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[
Posted on September 23, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
]
 "It is still legal in nine states for insurers to reject applicants who are survivors of domestic violence, citing the history of domestic violence as a pre-existing condition."

It's said here: http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/denied_coverage/index.html

I don't really have words for this, at least not coherent ones.
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[
Posted on August 15, 2009 @ 10:07 am
]
Regarding the Town Hall Meeting held at Case by Congresswoman Marcia Fudge: "She did admit that she has not read the whole bill, that she has staff to do that ( HR 3200 was up to 1400 pages so that is an absurd question, I think)."

No.  It is not an absurd question.  This is why:

As a student, I easily read 70-100 pages a night, and not necessarily stuff I want to be reading (yay gen-ed requirements).  I read pretty fast, so figure that takes me about an hour and a half...bump that up to 2.5 hours for people reading at a regular pace.  Okay, so by spending 2.5 hours a night for 14-20 days, they could easily finish reading the bill on their own.  I don't care if it's dense legal language.  This is what they get paid to do, and now they're on recess.  Why on earth is this unreasonable?

EDIT: Okay, I'm sure they have other bills to read also.  I still don't understand why reading things is so hard.  These things are important--I want them to know what they're passing and what they're trying to convince us to accept.
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Nothing's ever easy [
Posted on August 06, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
]
Cutting someone who used to be a good friend out of your life is more difficult than you would think.  Or more difficult than it ought to be.  Or both.

Occasionally I think that I ought to be a more forgiving person, but then I remind myself that he had at least four months to bring it up, and never did.  At least, not with me.  Perhaps I'm in the wrong here, but this is how I want to handle it, and so this is how I'm going to.  It just needs to suck less, is all.
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[
Posted on July 28, 2009 @ 11:12 am
]
I feel like I'm doing a lot of feminist ranting, but I keep running into things that bother me.

Women are not unnecessarily complicated beings.  Women are human, and therefore have the same sorts of needs and desires that men do (beyond the social constructs that we're all taught from when we're little).  Women may express those needs and desires differently, whether through some quirk of biology or through some sort of social conditioning, but that does not mean that they're impossibly complicated and a headache to deal with for men.  (This also means that men are not simple, stupid creatures.)

This stupid stereotype of women being incomprehensible to men pisses me off.  It's fairly lazy and unnecessary.
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[
Posted on July 19, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
]
In church today, the deacon told a story about a man grabbing his two dogs and leaving a burning house...while his wife, kids, and mother-in-law were still in there.  The congregation thought this was hilarious.

I can't help but wonder what the reaction would've been if the story had been about a woman leaving her family in the house instead of a man.
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Suckage [
Posted on June 14, 2009 @ 2:56 pm
]
At some point this past academic year (probably second semester), I lost pretty much all confidence I had in myself academically.  I don't know why--it's not like my grades sucked in my classes, far from it--but it happened and it isn't going away.

I'm not really sure what to do about this.  With Physical Chemistry coming up (D:) along with med school applications next spring, I think it would be good to get that confidence back.  I'm just not sure how to go about that.

Hopefully kicking the MCAT's ass will help this problem.
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Too bad [
Posted on May 17, 2009 @ 10:59 pm
]
It's too bad you can't talk about things like CyberNations during an interview.  I've learned some surprisingly useful skills from this game.  For example, my interpersonal skills have gotten a lot better.  I also know how to deal with sexual harassment from someone who outranks me! Yay!

I don't know, I think people give roleplaying games too little credit.  Maybe once my nerdy generation grows up more, that will change.
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Grr [
Posted on May 11, 2009 @ 10:02 pm
]
So much for getting a lot done this summer.  I think almost all of my free time will be taken up by studying for the MCATs.

It'll be worth it if I can score high enough in September to not have to worry about them again...unless I don't get in the first time I apply to med school, but we'll worry about that later.
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