Oh Canada, Why Canada?

My dears, if you know me, you are aware of my hunka-hunka burning love for all things Canada. You will then understand the shock and sadness I am experiencing after reading this troubling story. I came across a blog on feministing.com (GREAT website...check out the blurb on Miki Fujiwara's Art for Change, she's rad!) that talked about docs in Canada refusing to perform paps on unmarried women. Currently, these dangerous decisions are backed by a "conscience clause," established by the Canadian Medical Association. The clause protects physicians from making decisions that go against their personal beliefs, giving them the freedom to refuse birth control, abortions, and, I guess, preventative pap smears to anyone. Here's the link to the full story on the Reproductive Health Reality Check website (can someone show me how to replace full websites like the one below with words like "link" or "pap" that take you straight to the story?)...

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/02/06/abnormal-paps-pap-smears-doctors-refusing-canada

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Happy Valentines Day

This is the most perfect 11 minutes on You Tube: it has Molly Ivens (one of my heroes), ample reason to mock Texas law, and lots and lots of sex toys (somewhat SFW). Happy Love Day!

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Stripping the blog (sadly, SFW)

We've had this discussion a few times before, but I wanted to update you on the blog loading speed issue. If you don't care, don't read after the jump.

The blog simply won't load quickly with all of the fancy stuff on it. I've tried a few different things, but the thirty second explanation is that all of the fun things on the blog (the peek-a-boo posts, tabs at the top, comments, delicious, etc.) are hosted on other servers. Every time you try to load the blog, it has to ask all of those computers what to do, which takes a long time. Neither mathgimp nor I can host the applications for lots of reasons. If someone would like to donate server space AND become blog master or mistress, I'll gladly hand over the reins.

Until then, I'm going to systemically strip away features until I decide it loads quickly enough. Today, I got rid of delicious, since it's been inactive lately, and the visitor counter, because I've heard a lot of trackers cause insane slow downs. I have a few other things I'm going to try as time permits.

Anyway, just thought some of you might want to know. Cheers!

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In defense of selfunemployment

Most of you know that I have embraced the world of selfunemployment. My rationale is simple: I don't like working. I do like editing and tutoring. So I will do those things as I wait for all of the graduate schools in the world to reject me (No, I haven't heard back from anywhere yet - I'm just predicting the future. And it's not like if I got into/was rejected from Columbia, the entire universe wouldn't know in about .005 seconds. I swear I'll tell you when I know. It'll happen).

After all of the graduate schools in the world reject me, I will then fulfill my dreams of moving to Estonia, marrying royalty, and living out my days discovering the enchantment of Eastern Europe. Until that time, I figure that between the wonders of Maryland unemployment law and the number of non-native English speakers in this great region of ours, I can get by.

But most of the tutoring and editing I do happen at night, and yet, I'm never bored during the day. Sure, some of my time is spent doing "business" stuff, but really there's a lot of time left over. It boggles my mind that I'm able to fill it. Clearly, I'm not blogging (sorry. I resolve to do better). I'm reading, but not much more than pre-selfunemployment time. My house is certainly not spick and span, as one would think it could be with this much free time.

The answer, my friends, lies in errands. All of a sudden, I'm an errand running machine. Today, for example, my schedule is as follows: wake up (check). make coffee (check). read the news/blogs/internet (check). return business calls (check). And then, viola! It's already 3 pm, and the rest of the day is reserved for "errands" before the evening tutoring. What errands do I have in store for today? Grocery store. Dry cleaning. Get gas. Go to the gym.

Now, I understand that other people do these things as well. Indeed, I did them (sans gym) in the days before selfunemployment. But really, I'm not sure how or when. Every day, I have a list of things that must be accomplished either on the phone or on the interweb or outside my house...and they actually get done now!

I'm admittedly a little concerned that my standard of happiness has sunk to the level where planning out an evening meal, shopping for the ingredients, and then preparing it constitutes a deeply fulfilling day. I've contemplated starting a writing or research project...or trying to watch all film noir movies...or learning how to actually knit. But really, I'm pretty damned content. And I figure that for the first time in my life, I'm well rested, and doing pretty much exactly what I want to do, pretty much every day.

I think I'd actually make a really good housewife. I wouldn't mind there being kids around to play with. I wouldn't mind my life consisting of running errands, reading what I want, volunteering, watching a lot of movies, and making a little bit of money on the side. And if that could happen outside of the Mary Land, so much the better.

In conclusion, we're still calling grad school plan A. But plan B, rapidly moving up in the ranks, is becoming an Estonian housewife. And I'm REALLY excited about that possibility.

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I Wasn't Eaten By Chipmunks!

I received a frantic voicemail from one of my dear friends yesterday, wondering if dirty little chipmunks had taken me away and had me for supper. I realized that I had a duty, to set the record straight for my compadres. That's right my beloved dumplings of the blogosphere, I am alive. I come to you, with my little Azerbaijanian head down, begging for you to take me home. I have been thinking about you my precious, a lot. I missed your laughs, your warmth, and the way your belly hairs curl when you smile. But alas, we are united again, and I come with some news. I'm pregnant...Is Nuraido on the floor? Ok, no I'm not pregnant, and no I'm not getting married, and no I'm not a pony in disguised (sorry Mathgimp). The big news is that I am officially free from the shackles that were my comprehensive exams. That ugly beast, that sucked the life out of me for the past month, is gone! You would have been proud, I poured my munchkin heart out for those cretins for 3 damn hours, and now I'm feeling like butta! Ok, onto politics. OOOH, sidenote, when did Politico become so popular? Every news channel turns to them as the source for all things USA. Anywho, Obama is speaking at UMD on Monday, the 11th, at 12:30pm, and the doors open at 10:30am. It's free and it's probably gonna be a madhouse, so if you're interested we could meet up early on campus and roll together, might be cool. Well my precious, I have to return to my coffee and Wheat Thins, but know that you are on my mind and I'm just a phone call away. PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!

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I heart Huckabee

This is from David...I just watched it for the dinosaurs.

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