Liz's Bloglet - Friday 4 April 2008

While walking through the neighborhood this evening, Remi and I saw the first fire ants we've ever seen in North Carolina. Apparently the mild winters recently, combined with excessive landscaping, have greatly increased their range through the state. Getting away from fire ants was one of the really nice things about leaving Georgia. I spent every summer there with toes covered with little blisters (they take a month to go away on me). _
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08:04:20 PM, Friday 4 April 2008

Remi worked for this professor for awhile last year--everything I hear about him just makes him seem cooler _
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01:50:06 PM, Friday 4 April 2008

Women serving in the military in Iraq are more likely to be raped by their fellow soldiers than killed by Iraqis _
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05:30:35 PM, Thursday 3 April 2008

I had forgotten just how amazing Edward James Olmos' recurring character on the West Wing was. "The Short List" is still one of the single best pieces of television ever made. And it features an awesome discussion of the writing of the Bill of Rights! _
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09:15:50 PM, Monday 31 March 2008

Robert Fagles died Choosing him as commencement speaker was one of the only useful acts ever performed by my class at St. John's. _
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10:17:55 PM, Sunday 30 March 2008

If they try to collect this money, we should be marching in the streets _
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06:03:23 PM, Saturday 29 March 2008

The Democratic Party could ensure a landslide victory over John McCain if Obama or Clinton took Nader's view on the issues to heart _
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05:58:05 AM, Thursday 27 March 2008

Random fact of the day: They've changed the 5 flavors of LifeSavers. This pack I just bought contains watermelon, pineapple, cherry, raspberry, and orange. As a big fan of lime, lemon, and grape, I protest. _
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01:05:16 PM, Wednesday 26 March 2008

I checked all the time for awhile since we left Athens, but I had stopped checking at some point so I missed seeing that you can now listen to my favorite obscure little religion/poetry/music public radio show online: Sound and Spirit I assume it has taken awhile to set this up because of copyright issues over the music they play. I don't know who exactly the target audience is, but I've always assumed it was made for me. _
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06:51:43 AM, Wednesday 26 March 2008

This is the best thing I've ever seen written about faith in the science blogosphere. The author has PhDs in both chemistry and philosophy. _
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06:11:22 PM, Tuesday 25 March 2008

I have very good friends who are gay who go to my church and feel from it only the warm embrace of religious communion. I have very good friends who are gay who are made very nervous by my religion. Even though those friends know that I only love them and my congregation only loves them, they have been so persecuted by other people claiming to be Christian that they will never feel entirely comfortable with my religion. I simply avoid even mentioning that aspect of my life to them at all, for fear of their discomfort. And watching the videos of Sally Kern of Oklahoma City, OK reminds me of why.

So, I apologize again to my gay friends on behalf of everyone who is trying to live by Christ's teaching and offers you only love that we still haven't done enough. We will have done enough when those people like Sally Kern are the ones who feel obligated to keep their mouths shut to avoid hurting our gay neighbors. Until that day, the progressive religious community still has a lot of work to do. If you want to see an impressive demonstration, watch an openly gay Oklahoma pastor stand up to her on tv Part 2 _
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03:55:32 PM, Tuesday 25 March 2008

While gathering links for my stream restoration blogging of the day, I came across a webpage by Mr. Busta-Peck _
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08:47:37 AM, Monday 24 March 2008

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain
, He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

Hallelujah! _
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08:03:55 AM, Sunday 23 March 2008

Tonight I used this to make up for my dreary geographical knowledge of Africa. To be fair, the last time I had African geography was in 7th grade, say 1989, so the names and boundaries have changed since then. But I now know people from lots of those countries. So it was shameful that I couldn't remember who was East African and who was West African. _
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08:25:16 PM, Saturday 22 March 2008

On Friday, February 22, every last person involved in operating the Mars rovers for that day was a woman _
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10:26:10 AM, Saturday 22 March 2008

Things about my job that make me laugh _
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09:03:01 AM, Saturday 22 March 2008

I've been having a hard time lately. And I really like this. _
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04:10:05 PM, Thursday 20 March 2008

What a cute robot! (that will probably destroy us all in a few years). via the biggest computer nerd in my lab. _
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04:03:40 PM, Thursday 20 March 2008

I have no great love for YouTube, and a love/hate relationship with improv, but this was lovely

_
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04:03:35 PM, Wednesday 19 March 2008

Has it really been five years? In the words of a song I learned as a kid, written by people who thought they could stop a war, "When will we ever learn?"

_
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07:43:55 AM, Monday 17 March 2008

As long as I'm endorsing Shakeville endlessly, here are two columns, both by Jeff Fecke, that are worth reading:

Barack Obama ain't never been called a bitch
and
Yes this is a racist country and saying so is not racist _
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09:47:07 AM, Sunday 16 March 2008

In which our heroine helps a Japanese friend find where the Goonies lived. Sort of.

By the way, don't come here to say you haven't seen The Goonies. Just go rent it, then come back after you've seen it. _
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08:57:54 AM, Sunday 16 March 2008

Many years for Holy Week I put the St. Matthew Passion on and listen to it most of the week. I have the Gardner recording, so I can listen to it lots of times (I can't remember if there are any former SJC music assistants/serious SMP nerds reading this--the Gardner recording is the fastest paced one, getting through it in up to two hours less than the slowest ones like the Klemperer. On the other hand, the Klemperer has Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, so it kind of wins, too).

This year, I just realized I want to listen to Jesus Christ Superstar. Understand, I don't have the original London cast recording on vinyl that my parents had when I was growing up. Mine is this one. It's not for Broadway traditionalists, or for folks who are uncomfortable with a lesbian playing Jesus. But, oh my goodness it is good. _
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07:18:47 PM, Saturday 15 March 2008

Except for Shakesville I have given up on political blogs. It appears to be the only place on the internet where Clinton supporters and Obama supporters openly talk about how both sexism and racism are playing prominent roles in this election. Or, for that matter, where Clinton supporters and Obama supporters are actually having conversations, rather than just calling each other names and putting their hands over their ears. Policy is still being discussed. Strategy for beating Republicans is still being discussed, not just in the presidential race but in congressional races too. Toss in Melissa remaining an Edwards booster and even a couple of folks reminding us of important ideas raised by Gravel, Dodd, and Richardson, and I have hope that the progressive left will continue to have conversation and ideas and stay organized and come out of all of this together.

But then I look anywhere else on the internet, at sites like Metafilter where intelligent conversation about politics used to happen, and I despair.

So I go back to Shakesville. _
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07:04:11 PM, Friday 14 March 2008

Real women play the tuba! I may have never mentioned on this blog that I used to play the tuba. For three years I was the tuba player in my junior high band. It was fun, it was interesting, I learned a lot about harmony. I enjoyed the challenge of learning a new instrument while playing in a band with people who had been playing their instruments for several years. I learned a ton about breath control that has helped me in singing and running. And I was good at it. I made all-district twice and was first alternate for all-state.

And in high school I switched back to the flute (and in one of those funny twists became the designated piccolo player). I quit tuba for a lot of reasons, including really loving the flute and making good friends who were flute players. But there were also the comments. The never ending comments. And I thought if I did this one little gender-conforming thing and switched back to an instrument that was acceptable, that people would like me better and think I was acceptable. Not that that actually happened. It's nice to know that other women didn't yield to that pressure and that there are real women out there still playing the tuba. _
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07:36:55 AM, Friday 14 March 2008

want _
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09:16:19 PM, Wednesday 12 March 2008

This article written by a reporter I used to know and quoting a whole bunch of other people I used to know is one of the best explanations for why just getting water back into the streams doesn't mean the impact of the Great Southeast Drought of 2007 is over. Well, that and the impending Great Southeast Drought of 2008. _
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09:55:05 AM, Wednesday 12 March 2008

The best thing I've seen written about the election in a long time. While it is particularly addressing the coverage of women's responses to the election, I think it has a pretty universal message: they're both good candidates--nobody is a bad person for supporting either one of them, nor is anybody a bad person for not falling down and worshipping either one (or both) of them. _
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12:28:35 PM, Tuesday 11 March 2008

The ventilation system in my office/lab building is very loud. I have always noticed this. But it's actually too loud to do dictation in my office. Which rather sucks. I guess I may be working from home more. _
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09:57:26 AM, Tuesday 11 March 2008

Eliot Spitzer used to be a hero of mine. I know better than to have heroes. I know that all human beings are deeply flawed. But the man busted prostitution rings and has stood up for the rights of gays and illegal immigrants.

The patriarchy hurts men, too. It hurts men who seem like very good men, who have had every advantage and have appeared to have tried to do the right thing. It teaches them that, no matter what they may have heard, their personal pleasure is still the most important thing there is. It teaches them that with power comes privilege to break the very laws you require others to obey. It allows a man to turn his back on his wife and daughters, to turn another woman into nothing but an object for his own pleasure, and then to tell that "object" she isn't worth that price he promised to pay for her and to haggle her down to a lower price.

It allows that man to then stand up, and expect his wife to stand with him, while he says the equivalent of "mistakes were made" and pretend like this is just a personal matter which says nothing about this guy who used to bust prostitution rings or his ability to govern. I hate hypocrisy in all politicians of all parties.

Or really just what Jeff Fecke said _
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07:56:57 AM, Tuesday 11 March 2008

I am dictating this using iListen. I think that this will take a little practice, but it's pretty cool. _
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06:17:56 PM, Monday 10 March 2008

Tucker Carlson has admitted that American journalists are completely spineless when dealing with the powerful. Glenn Greenwald explores that here including a video of an amazing BBC interview with John Boulton (remember him?) challenging him on the administrative lies and the disaster that is Iraq.

NPR and PBS do some of the better interviews in the US. But how many times have they had a powerful government figure, from Boulton to Powell to the Vice President, interviewed by Juan Williams who gently pitches them softballs? Carlson is right that in the US the powerful would not agree to an interview with someone who used the UK style of interview. His problem is that he sees that as a good thing. _
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09:19:31 AM, Sunday 9 March 2008

"Pro-life" politicians in Virginia are cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood, funding which does not provide abortions, but does provide reproductive healthcare, contraception, and pre-natal care to low income women and men without health insurance

If the Virginia legislature actually cared about preventing abortions, they would want to fund contraception.

If the Virginia legislature actually cared about babies, they would want to fund pre-natal care.

If the Virginia legislature actually cared about punishing poor women for having sex, they would want cut their funding to Planned Parenthood. _
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09:20:03 AM, Thursday 6 March 2008

The Curious Cultural Journey of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" Traces the path from complicated song about all of the different emotions of Hallelujah, featuring musical puns and a King James' faithful telling of David and Bathsheeba, to a cultural cue for "sad montage" used in every television show in the past 10 years. Also, explains why the various covers suck. via Metafilter, where the thread is full of people who didn't read the article and think Jeff Buckley wrote it _
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09:08:19 AM, Thursday 6 March 2008

I'm pleased to announce that (once again) I do not have mono. _
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04:09:04 PM, Wednesday 5 March 2008

Blogs are windows on so many different lives. This year, I've watched two marriages fall apart. This one filled me with righteous anger on behalf of a woman who was blindsided, and joy at seeing her struggle through and find herself on the other side. This one just makes me so sad. Chris Clarke has always seemed like one of the few really good people on the internet. _
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07:35:26 PM, Monday 3 March 2008

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