August 2005 – Page 2

No Blog Indispensable

I mean to say, “where’s them damn burkas when you need them?”

I resisted Mount Sims for a long, long while, but last night the boyfriend forced me to sit down and listen to the stuff. So here I am sitting in my computer chair shamelessly rocking out to this seedy, Prince-like, electro jam. If you’re like me, you’ll have to ignore the lyrics to enjoy the music. This grew on me despite my deep, snobbish, anti-electronic reservations.

Rational Behavior (my favorite)
Good Behavior
How We Do

Right click, save as. You Mac users do whatever it is that you do.

School and School

How I feel The first week of the semester is over and my future responsibilities are staring me in the face. For those who aren’t keeping up, I begin my official student teaching practicum in about five weeks. I met with my mentor teacher last week and found that she wants the entire ten-week practicum planned out in advance, lesson plans and all, before I begin. This is, if you don’t know, an enormous task. What’s worse is that she handed me a stack of books and said something to the effect of, “These should get you started, but we don’t really use them.”

Hence the picture above.

The stress is already getting to me, so I’m ignoring it for the rest of the evening, made myself a five-herb quiche, some chocolate chip cookies with Ethan, and an beginning to start a new knitting project now that the last one is almost done.

I have begun blogging at my ed-blog again* — bookmark me and stop by if you want to read my school-related rants and harried bleggings for lesson plans and methodology. In a few days I will remove this link and make that blog pseudonymous to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent, so hurry!

* Link removed.

Why is anyone still shopping at American Apparel?

American Apparel has been celebrated as a young, socially responsible company that rejects sweatshop labor and pays its workers well. This is all true. But for those of you who missed the Jane article documenting the bad behavior of AA’s founder, Dov “Walking Erection” Charney, here it is. Jane is also doing a little poll to see if the article about Charney (in which he masturbates in front of a female reporter, among other things) influences anyone’s decision to shop at AA. The article is interesting, and Jane is a great feminist-leaning mainstream publication, so check it out.

If you don’t live in New York or LA, you may not have seen AA’s ads. They feature out-of-the-mold (but still really beautiful) girls in kiddie-porn-like poses — you can see a few of them on the AA website.

Time Wasters for Saturday

Phrases that sound like cliches even though probably no one has said them before. [via Gwen]

Cats in sinks. Just that simple. [via Emily]

Adopt These Blogs

These are two of my favorite reads, one old-to-me and one new-to-me.

The latter is Religious Policeman, the “diary of a Saudi man” currently living in Great Britain. For an excellent introduction to his blog, see “Dear Alhamedi,” a dissection of an advice column that tells a man what to do when his wife won’t do what he tells her.

The former is a long-time favorite of mine, Half-Changed World, a blog that deals with all sorts of family and parenting politics. For yet another great example, see “Happiness and Parenting.”

Plan B postponed. Again.

Who says they aren’t playing politics?

I’ll Get Back In The Kitchen Right Quick

I was going to try and write something remotely serious about the recent research that asserts men are, biologically, slightly smarter than women, and how racist and misogynist research brings the wingnuts out in droves to defend, well, eugenicists, but this happened instead.

Jesse: ugh. this “men are naturally smarter than women” study is bringing out the morons on the right. again.

Lauren: i’ll turn off the computer and get back to the kitchen
Lauren: IQ scores have been raising so much every year for 50 years that our grandparents shouldn’t have been able to hold jobs

Jesse: there’s also the minor problem that IQ is about as much of an approximation of intelligence as an SAT – it’s got a lot more to do with cultural exposure than actual intellect.

Lauren: i wouldn’t know anything about that
Lauren: you’re so much smarter
Lauren: i’ll just sit in a corner over here and wait for you to say something intelligent about it

Jesse: it’s okay – just lay back and look pretty.

Lauren: i’m trying, i’m trying

Jesse: no books in bed!
Jesse: unless they’re cosmo.

Lauren: do you think i look fat in this brain?

Jesse: no, no, you look fine. i’ve had bigger, though.

Lauren: *ahem*
Lauren: no comment

[Instant Messaging slightly edited for coherence]