cinnazimt

!

Wed, 02 May 2007 01:42:15 GMT

For the first time in my life, my transcript reads 4.0.

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:56:21 GMT

You Belong in San Francisco

You crave an eclectic, urban environment. You're half California, half NYC.
You're open minded, tolerant, and secretly think you're the best.
People may dismiss you as a hippie, but you're also progressive, interesting, and rich!

Where Does Your Inner Californian Belong?

The Emperor's New Drugs

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:45:19 GMT

If you've been on antidepressants, read this. If you know me then you know I'm generally anti-pills and that, despite this bias, I've taken anti-depressants off and on for years. That said:

"in more than half of the 47 trials used by the Food and Drug Administration to approve the six leading antidepressants on the market, the drugs failed to outperform sugar pills, and in the trials that were successful, the advantage of drugs over placebo was slight." (albeit significant or it wouldn't have counted for the FDA)

This article also discusses the possibility that marketing drugs has increased their effectiveness. Interesting twist.

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:34:17 GMT

The Vampire Novel

Hmm, very interesting! You scored 136!

People are addicted to you, as you make such entertaining and sexy reading material. You get people’s imaginations flowing and make for the type of book people want to read more than once. Cults have been inspired by the likes of you.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 53% on bookpoints

Link: The What Kind Of Book Are You Test written by saucygirl on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

As I cram...

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:31:07 GMT

Then he laughed a little. He told me: "There is no difference between old and modern stories. Stories are stories. All stories are old. All stories are new. All stories belong to tomorrow."

Devil On a Cross, Ngugi wa Thiong'o,

Manifesting a trip

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 06:59:21 GMT

At the end of February and beginning of March, I have a break in classes. And, as you know, I'm in a very long distance relationship. I would love to turn this break into a long awaited visit. I'm hoping that, by reaching out to all of you charitable people, I might do it cheaply. Do you have frequent flier miles you could donate to me? Let me know! Also, please feel free to forward this to anyone who might be able to help out!

Thank you!

So, so happy.

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 19:48:34 GMT

Cinnazimt --
[noun]:

A person of questionable sanity who starts their own cult

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

lj!

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 02:06:35 GMT

Online forums I'm no longer addicted to: LJ.

Sorry everyone, I just forgot to read... I'll try to post...something...sometime...

Disappointing

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 03:18:32 GMT

No Free Love Available in Berkeley.
(According to craigslist,)

Oh, oxytocin.

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 03:52:52 GMT

Ecstatic Births?

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 19:39:46 GMT

Rules for answering the question:

If you're not a feminist but still care about gender issues, I don't mind you answering or critiquing it however you want.
If you have a hard time answering, feel free to discuss why.
I'm pretty curious about what people think, so feel free to write a billion page essay and post it here, email me, or call me.
Explain why you picked what you picked.
All of the answers represent some feminist point of view -- none of them are "unfeminist."

Question 1
Question 2
Question 3

4. The most concerning side-effect of feminism has been...

a) The belief that women are victims and powerless.

b) The belief that women are superior to men.

c) Animosity towards, from, or between feminists.

d) The removal of all sex differences, including why women are/were special.

e) Prevalence of abortion.

Feminism pt. 3

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 00:29:42 GMT

Rules for answering the question:

If you're not a feminist but still care about gender issues, I don't mind you answering or critiquing it however you want.
If you have a hard time answering, feel free to discuss why.
I'm pretty curious about what people think, so feel free to write a billion page essay and post it here, email me, or call me.
Explain why you picked what you picked.
All of the answers represent some feminist point of view -- none of them are "unfeminist."

Question 1
Question 2

3. How are gender roles determined?

a) Mostly or entirely by psycho-cultural processes. Biological processes are trivial.

b) Psycho-social processes fine tune biology.

c) Mostly or entirely by biological processses. Psycho-social processes are trivial.

d) This is irrelevent or unknowable.

e) These processes are dynamic and interrelated, constantly overwriting each other.

Feminism pt. 2

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:24:08 GMT

Rules for answering the question:

If you're not a feminist but still care about gender issues, I don't mind you answering or critiquing it however you want.
If you have a hard time answering, feel free to discuss why.
I'm pretty curious about what people think, so feel free to write a billion page essay and post it here, email me, or call me.
Explain why you picked what you picked.
All of the answers represent some feminist point of view -- none of them are "unfeminist."

Question 1

2. Which do you favor?

a) Enforced egalitarianism: Men and women should always be equally represented in public and private spaces.

b) Egalitarianism in opportunity: Barriers to equality should be removed so everyone has a fair chance.

c) Protectionism: Women have special concerns and should be protected.

d) Separatism: Women will never be free of the patriarchy until they are separate from men.

Feminism pt 1

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:13:44 GMT

Emi asked me the other day if a certain book from the feminist canon was worth reading. I suppose it depends on one's perspective...there are a billion different types of feminism, afterall. So I have a group of questions I'm going to be asking, to get a feel for what kind of feminists we all are...and possibly narrow it down better for myself.

Rules for answering the question:

If you're not a feminist but still care about gender issues, I don't mind you answering or critiquing it however you want.
If you have a hard time answering, feel free to discuss why, being as specific as possible.
I'm pretty curious about what people think, so feel free to write a billion page essay and post it here, email me, or call me.
All of the answers represent some feminist point of view -- none of them are "unfeminist."
In order to pick an answer, you can be for or against the items listed. Picking an answer only says you think those issues are the debates you most care about.
The issues listed for each goal are not exhaustive. Try to pick the category most similar to your own point of view.

1. If you were the leader of feminism, what goals would be most important?

a) Labor and Economy-centered Goals: Wages, division of labor, affirmative action, economic independence, etc.

b) Civil and Institution-centered Goals: Suffrage, sexual harassment, maternity leave, revising marriage/divorce/custody laws, single-sex education, etc.

c) Sexual and Body-centered Goals: Genital mutilation, shaving, anorexia, BDSM, sex-workers/prostitution, pornography, masturbation, women's health, rape, etc.

d) Psychological and Identity-centered goals: Stereotypes, liesure, pronouns and gendered language, clothing, sharing stories, understanding the intersection of gender with varied ethnicities/nations/classes/sexual orientations, etc.

e) Spiritual and Value-centered goals: Gaia/the Moon, Biblical interpretation, re-valuing women's art/literature/history/sports, peace, nurturing, balance, cycles, etc.

Female representation in national legislative bodies:

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:35:44 GMT

Rwanda (highest in the world) 49%

Sweden, South Africa, Namibia,
48%-40%

Denmark, Finland, Norway, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Iceland
39%-30%

New Zealand, Austria, Pakistan, Canada, China
29%-20%

UK (Commons), Mauritius, US (15%)
19%-10%

World Average
9%

Japan 7%

"Above Average" isn't that exciting, is it?

EDIT: I got to thinking and the quota systems in place in many world goverments mean the numbers of my last post are simply incorrect. That's what you get for using Wikipedia. Maybe I should update it.

What you should know:
1. The first set of data I posted is wrong/misrepresented.
2. The country with the highest percentage of female representation is still under 50% (Rwanda, 49% in their lower house and 30% upper house) and overall, women make up 16% of the world's parliaments.
3. Quotaproject.org has a lot more information, including how quota systems are used, different types of quota systems, and what the actual percentages are for countries who use some level of quota system.

Possibly a book reccomendation

Fri, 05 May 2006 06:51:34 GMT

Finished reading Woman on the Edge of Time just now.
I have decided that the entire genres of dis/utopia stories, and psychological thrillers need to have a new way of ending books. I may need to go back to reading the post-modernist, self-conscious, mod-podgy, pretentious story-telling books for a while to get my footing back.
Also, we need to hurry up on that whole non-gendered pronoun thing. I haven't found one yet that works.

Reminds me of: The Giver, The Handmaid's Tale, The Left Hand of Darkness, I am the Cheese, Herland. So if you liked any of those...
Generally I enjoyed and reccomend it. Although (or perhaps because) I'm unsettled right now.

the Bloods Product Guide

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 08:28:32 GMT

Bad Menstrual Cups
Yes, I sing the praises of menstrual cups whenever I get the chance, even in polite company. But I absolutely hate "Instead cups." Have you heard about these? Gah! They miss almost every fucking point of the whole cup experience.
1. Environmental. They aren't reusable or biodegradable.  Wikipedia says they cause MORE waste than tampons or pads. Yeah, some fucker decided to make "soft" menstrual cups that you can throw out.  Didn't we switch to the cup because of the phenomenal amount of waste caused by tampons and pads? Although this has been done before (the second version of Tassette, called Tassaway, in 1970.), I don't forigve the ultrafem company for creating the Instead product, simply because they aren't the first company to make the product.
2. Blood acceptance.  Their whole website is littered with phrases like "clean sex." If only Instead had been around in Biblical times, we could have avoided this whole "unclean" taboo for millenia! Oh, wait... I thought bloods just made me ritually interesting...
3. Fight that damn patriarchy. o.b. had a campaign a while ago, Created by a woman gynecologist. She understood what women value in a tampon.  That's where the Keeper is right on. It is designed and owned by women. The Instead cup isn't. (and while I don't like the o.b. tampon, that has to do with ecological reasons. The side-ways expanding and applicatorless design is far superior, in my opinion.)
4. The heteropatriarchy too. When they say, "clean sex" on their website, they are ostensibly refering exclusively to vaginal-penile intercourse. I say this because when they explain "virginity" on their website, they explain it as intercourse and all of their "I had sex on my period!" anecdotes are about hetero-sex. Oral sex and other outercourse can certainly be performed with (or without!) a sea sponge, menstrual cup, etc.
5. Cost. Like I said, they aren't reusable.
6. Etc. I could go on and on, really. I'm annoyed at the misinformation about hymens, the company name "ultrafem," the cosmo style feel of the website (okay, the magazine they picture is actually marie claude), ignoring sea sponges as a viable alternative, etc., etc. Thinking about them fills me with rage. I know I'm not able to evaluate them objectively anymore.

Now, what I can say about them is this: they're non-latex, they aren't bleached, they won't give you TSS, women who use it have to get comfortable with their bodies for insertion, you can wear them longer than tampons (overnight). And the website conveniently lists several big box stores you can buy them at, like Wal-Mart. And if you're going to buy a product like this, who better to buy it from?

Good Menstrual Choices
So here's a little guide to help you make good menstrual choices. Even if you're already on the menstrual-lib bandwagon, skip the first bit but read the second. There might be things in here you don't know -- I found new things out while writing/researching this.

First, there are probably more options than you know of. I've organized a list based on cost, health, body-positivity, and environmental issues:
Excellent options: Reusable menstrual cups like DivaCup, the Keeper, MoonCup, and Lunette. Lunapanties. Washable hemp pads (best with velcro and a non-absorptive layer.)
Good options: Sea sponges, organic cotton re-usable pads (preferably with velcro and a non-absorptive layer), menstrual towels (ie- regular towels you sleep between while you just bleed, bleed, bleed)
Justifiable options: Biodegradable, organic cotton, throw-away pads and tampons (without applicators).
Bad options: tampons (with cardboard or no applicator), throw-away pads and pantyliners.
Horrible options: throw-away menstrual cups, scented tampons or tampons with plastic applicators.

Second, there is no "best option." Everyone is different. You know if you can put your fingers inside yourself, if you can walk out of a public restroom to rinse something out, or if you'll remember to wash something in time. You know your health risks and allergies and lifestyle. So, here's a little guide to choosing, augmenting, and playing with your menstrual choices.
If you...
*are prone to UTI's...pad-users (even reusable cotton pads) are more likely to give you a UTI than a menstrual cup or tampon.  This is because they move around, allowing e. coli to travel around. If you make your own, use velcro or sew them right onto some of your favourite (or least favourite) underwear.
*are prone to yeast infections ...the DivaCup, MoonCup, and Lunette are non-porous and can be boiled but the Keeper is not, allowing candidas to build up. Sea sponges soaked in water and a little tea tree oil or colloidal silver help kill of the candidas.
*are prone to vaginitis...it has been linked to tampon but not cup use. Tampons absorb all of the moisture they can along with the blood, leaving you with a dry, cranky vagina. Cups allow the vaginal walls to stay lubricated.
*are scared of TSS...yeah, it is really awful and could kill you or change your whole life. menstrual cups and sea sponges are not associated with TSS as tampons are. This is because tampons dry your vag of blood AND mucus and allow little wounds in the vaginal wall. Sea sponges soaked in water and a few drops of tea tree oil will kill s. aureus, the bacterium which causes TSS if it gets in your blood stream.
*have endometriosis...there may be a link between the worsening/start of endometriosis and internal menstrual products. Nobody knows.
*are allergic to latex...the Keeper is made of rubber latex. The other cups are made of silicone.
*had breast implants...the silicone used in breast implants is a gel, which can seep through the body. The silicone used in the cups is a solid, which will not travel through your body.
*use scented tampons...remember, they are full of chemicals (read: irritants), which cause infections. Which make you smelly. If your tampon smells before it makes contact with air, or very badly after it makes contact with air, you have an infection that needs to be treated and kept away from irritants like perfume.
*use disposable pads...even though it isn't in you, the chemicals you're rubbing up against all day may factor into your physical health and at the least cause chafing.
*flush tampons...Stop it! Even if the tampon box says you can do this, you shouldn't. They can cause all kinds of problems throughout the water cycle, including in your own pipes. Ick.
*buy washable pads...make sure you wash them before you use them. Hemp and unbleached cotton have oils which inhibit absorption. These oils are easily broken down by simply washing them.
*make your own pads...hemp is more absorbent and eco-friendly than even organic cottons. Also, use a non absorbent material, like fleece or nylon, as the underside of the pad to keep from spotting. (see also: are prone to UTI's)
*have a tilted uterus...don't use Insteads because they won't fit and will leak everywhere.
*do yoga..."back flow" during inverted postures (upside down) is not a substantiated medical concern, but prolonged upside-down poses may change the flow of energy during your bloods, which is only a concern if you already have less energy. Spinal twists, Shoulder bridge, Tucked womb, forward bend, child pose, yoga mudra, and belly breathing are said to help cramping.
*notice your cup slide...do Kegels! now! your vaginal muscles aren't toned and this will effect the intensity of your orgasms and bladder control too. Ewww!
*don't like stains...soak your pads or underwear in cold water before you wash them, and wash them in cold water.
*want to have sex during your bloods...go for it. Okay, check with your partner first. If s/he isn't cool with some blood-interaction, you have options. Pads, tampons, and cups aren't very good ones. Sponges and (alas) the throw-away cups are very doable. With the sponges, you will want to use extra lubricant though, because they tend to sop you up pretty well.
*are cleaning reusable products...clean them at the end of your cycle. Do not use soap on them! it leaves a residue which can irritate you and cause infections. also, do not boil sea-sponges more than 2-3 minutes as this will cause them to shrink and densen and do not boil rubber cups (the Keeper) as they gum up after a while.  These products are best cleaned by rinsing in hot water and then soaking in a solution of water and one of the following: apple cider, baking soda, colloidal silver, tea tree oil, or hydrogen peroxide. Then air dry it before putting it in the Muslin bag until next month.
*hate the cup stem...cut it off. it won't leak.
*are vegetarian...menstrual cups have not been tested on animals. Sea sponges are an animal which are harvested directly from the ocean floor and are not factory farmed. They are a "renewable resource" in that, when harvested, they release egg and sperm cells. They do not have a nervous system so they can't feel pain. But they are still animals and not plants.
*use an IUD...reusable menstrual cups are okay to use, because they sit low in the vagina. The horrible-anyway Insteads may interfere with the IUD strings.
*want to know what is in your tampon...tough. law (in the US and Canada... I don't know about anyone else) does not require tampon manufacturers to list their ingredients. tampon manufacturers may list all, some, or none of their ingredients if they choose to.

thanks to Moon Hut, All Natural Mamas, the Museum of Menstruation, MoonCup, Yoga.com, Sea Pearls, MenstrualCups, wikipedia, and a big anti-thank you to Insteads.

Genocide Remembrance Day

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 06:00:10 GMT

Today is Armenia's Genocide Remembrance Day. Between 1915-1923, an estimated 1.2-1.5 million Armenians were were killed. Most were "relocated" and died of harsh conditions (including starvation) or brought to one of the many concentration camps to be burned, drowned, poisoned, or otherwise tortured. The genocide "officially" began on April 24 of 1915, when hundreds of Armenian intellectuals were arrested and (for the most part) executed.

Turkey does not remember this genocide today or on any other day. Turkey has never admitted to a government-sponsored genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Remember genocide today:
Find out more about the Armenian genocide
See how the Armenian genocide relates to gender, at Gendercide Watch.
Listen to Democracy Now!'s segment: The Armenian Genocide: 90 Years Later Turkey Continues to Deny the Extermination of a People
Read a book by Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish novelist who refuses to deny the massacres (often compared to Calvino, Borge, Kafka, Márquez, and Rushdie)
Learn about genocide in general, and genocides happening today the Institute for the Study of Genocide
Join in the campaign to end genocide in Darfur
Form opinions on current issues in the same region, like the Republic of Nagorno-Karbagh, Turkish/Armenian borders, or Kurdistan (one of the most militarzied regions on earth)

Okay, okay. I'm not generally interested in genocide. Obviously I have some people to thank. So...thanks to Q who's passion for such things kicks my ass and will change the world, Su, who thinks the Armenian genocide most be told, even as a bed-time story, and E who got the word out to Calvin about Darfur.

My upstairs neighbours

Sat, 15 Apr 2006 06:30:31 GMT

Sometimes I think "boy, those people upstairs are really loud. Don't they ever go to bed? It's like 2:30 and they're still moving around!" And then I remember I don't have neighbours or even housemates. I have a cat. And mice. I'm still not accustomed to this living situation.

Location, location, location!

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 07:52:33 GMT

My newest favourite thing is livejournal's "current location" field. They did an exceptionally lousy job of predicting what people would write. And before finding out, they went to all the trouble of integrating it with google maps.

So now you have this entertaining game of clicking on their location link and watching google struggle to find Jesse's house, a store selling The comfy blue chair or a business named the fucking internet cafe.

YAY!

Oh yeah.

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 20:09:20 GMT

Except for some nonsense and quotes, I've turned my lj friends only.

If you want to read it and you can't, tell me and we'll work it out.

South Africa has legalized gay marriage.

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 23:27:32 GMT

according to the human rights campaign, South Africa has "become the first African nation to extend marriage to same-sex couples. Elsewhere, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain grant equal marriage rights. Additionally, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom all offer some level of domestic partnership or civil union protections to same-sex couples and their families."

i'd give you links to read more but if you're that interested, you'll search google news and pick a news slant you like.

read this fucking book, now.

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:25:09 GMT

    There are passages of my book I know by heart.
    By heart, this is not an expression I use lightly.
    My heart is weak and unreliable. When I go it will be my heart. I try to burden it as little as possible. If something is going to have an impact, I direct it elsewhere. My gut for example, or my lungs, which might seize up for a moment but have never yet failed to take another breath. When I pass a mirror and catch a glimpse of myself, or I'm at the bus stop and some kids come up behind me and say, Who smells shit?--small daily humiliations--these I take, generally speaking, in my liver. Other damages I take in other places. The pancreas I reserve for being struck by all that's been lost. It's true that there's so much, and the organ is so small. But. You would be surprised how much it can take, all I feel is a quick sharp pain and then it's over. Sometimes I imagine my own autopsy. Disappointment in myself: right kidney. Disappointment of others in me: left kidney. Personal failures: kishes. I don't mean to make it sound like I've made a science of it. It's not that well thought out. I take it where it comes. It's just that I notice certain patterns. When the clocks are turned forward and the dark falls before I'm ready, this, for reasons I can't explain, I feel in my wrists. And when I wake up and my fingers are stiff, almost certainly I was dreaming of my childhood. The field where we used to play, the field in which everything was discovered and everything was possible. (We ran so hard we thought we would spit blood: to me that is the sound of childhood, heavy breathing and shoes scraping the hard earth.) Stiffness of the fingers is the dream of childhood as it's been returned to me at the end of my life. I have to run them under the hot water, steam clouding the mirror, outside the rustle of pigeons. Yesterday I saw a man kicking a dog and I felt it behind my eyes. I don't know what to call this, a place before tears. The pain of forgetting: spine. The pain of remembering: spine. All the times I have suddenly realized that my parents are dead, even now, it still surprises me, to exist in the world while that which made me has ceased to exist: my knees, it takes half a tube of Ben-Gay and a big production just to bend them. To everything a season, to every time I've woken only to make the mistake of believing for a moment that someone was sleeping beside me: a hemorrhoid. Loneliness: there is no organ that can take it all.
    Every morning, a little more.

from The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:00:12 GMT

Attachment can be compared to fire. If we grasp fire, what happens? Does it lead to happiness?

If we say: "Oh, look at that beautiful fire! Look at the beautiful colors! I love red and orange; they're my favorite colors," and then grasp it, we would find a certain amount of suffering entering the body. And then if we were to contemplate the cause of that suffering we would discover it was the result of having grasped that fire. On that information, we would hopefully, then let the fire go.

Once we let fire go then we know that it is something not to be attached to. This does not mean we have to hate it, or put it out. We can enjoy fire, can't we? It's nice having a fire, it keeps the room warm, but we do not have to burn ourselves in it.

-- Ajahn Sumedho

Instinctual Subtypes

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 04:50:59 GMT

For those of you who don't know their instinctual subtypes, want more info on relationships between enneagram numbers, etc. i found a new website: http://www.authenticenneagram.com/

have fun.

Rwanda (highest in the world)	49%
Sweden, South Africa, Namibia,	48%-40%
Denmark, Finland, Norway, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Iceland	39%-30%
New Zealand, Austria, Pakistan, Canada, China	29%-20%
UK (Commons), Mauritius, US (15%)	19%-10%
World Average	9%
Japan	7%