Blogosaurus Vex

Not much work got done today.  I read the first chunk of some school reading, but was called away by the siren song of my whaling ship disaster book.  I’m a huge sucker for disaster and survival stories – particularly tales of the early exploration of Antarctica.  But this book that I read today was awesome.  I have now decided that, though Antarctica is a terrible place to be, the middle of the Pacific Ocean without food or water is pretty terrible too.  The castaways of the Essex spent three months floating around the ocean without sufficient water or food – there’s all kinds of extreme physical privation, desperation, suffering, and of course cannibalism in this story.  While stores lasted, they were on a ration of half a pint of water a day and three ounces of hard tack for food!  And of course it’s not exactly a story, but rather a history.  This really happened.

These tales always leave me amazed at the fortitude of certain people.  Survival seems to be linked at least in part to the maintenance of totally unreasonable hope in the face of astronomically bad odds – Were I ever to find myself in a survival scenario, I have no doubt I’d be among the first to die off for lack of hope.  I give up hope of living if I get the flu, for god’s sake.  Never mind being stranded thousands of miles from land in a little leaky boat with a ration of a cup of water a day to hold me.

Anyway, I enjoyed this book quite a bit and am now inspired to actually read Moby-Dick which I have been threatening to do for years but have never gotten around to.  We shall see!

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So I’m at my dad’s place in the valley, ostensibly house sitting while he is away on a week’s vacation.  But actually I’m babysitting, though it’s terribly insulting to refer to your 17 year old brother as a baby, to him if not to me.  Hence “house sitting.”

I’m digging being here.  It’s quiet.  There’s air conditioning.  And a cat.  And no one to pick up after but me! (Hi Husband, I love you!)  I’m living on corn on the cob and Zoodles and diet iced tea.  And some sucker has a wireless connection without any security so I’m footloose and fancy free with regards to the internet.  I’m thinking of downloading several hundred megs of nasty porn just to mess with them… nah.  I’m too busy lazing around for that.

Actually I’m getting a lot of reading done.  I’m reading an account of the sinking of the whaleship Essex, which was capsized by an angry sperm whale and is, so I’m told, the inspiration for the climactic scene in Moby-Dick.  I’m also reading more Jung, and how’s this for a shocking quotation?   In reference to women who are acting in accordance with their animus, or masculine rational side:

“… with women is it a question of power, whether of truth or justice or some other ‘ism’ – for the dressmaker and hairdresser have already taken care of their vanity.  The ‘Father’ (i.e., the sum of conventional opinions) always plays a great role in female argumentation.  No matter how friendly and obliging a woman’s Eros may be, no logic on earth can shake her if she is ridden by the animus.  Often the man has the feeling – and he is not altogether wrong – that only seduction or a beating or rape would have the necessary power of persuasion.”

There’s more but you get the idea.  I added the bolding to make sure you didn’t miss the important part: If your woman starts trying to use logic to argue with you, not only will she actually be illogical, but obviously she needs a good raping!

It’s this kind of thing that gives turn of the century (last century, that is) men a bad name.  And so it should, of course – I was pretty shocked to read this.  I think Jung is pretty interesting, and he does get me thinking – but it kind of puts a bad taste in my mouth when I come across things like this.  I try to be all post-modern and remind myself that we shouldn’t judge those who came before us by the standards of today, but really, how on earth can this be explained away?  Like slavery – It’s just never excusable, ever, in 1700 or 2000.

Of course there’s more to Jung than sexism and advice to rape the sense out of nearby females.  But yeah… shocking.

Posted in Domesticity, Personal, Psychology | 2 Comments »

“Nature is aristocratic. The normal man is a fiction.”

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Horrible vomiting illness.

That’s all I have to say.

Posted in Health | 1 Comment »

Fuck I hate it when shirts shrink!  Aaargh!  Why can the manufacturers not prewash the freaking fabric?  Is it to much to ask that the thing I buy remain the same when I wash it?

Posted in Ranting | 3 Comments »

Today I am going to SuperStore to buy veggie burgers. The have two kinds I endorse: the portobello and swiss burgers, and the burgers that attempt to be meaty. Both are excellent, though the former turn to mushy grey cowpies when they melt so make sure you pop them on the grill from frozen.

I have some family barbeques to go to this weekend and I really make the family nervous – they have no idea what to feed me. This is why I need to bring the patties. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them that they don’t need to do anything special – there will be plenty of potato salad and chips with salsa and pie and buns and bean salad to keep me in calories. They insist on the presence of some sort of central dish, a meat place holder if you will. The result is I end up overeating because really, I fill up on potato salad and pie but feel compelled to eat my vegetarian dish too, because dammit I made it and brought it. Tonight will be no different.

I have an aunt who is also a vegetarian and now the three of us (aunt, me, Husband) are collectively eyed askance at family dinners. What do we eat? Why are we so difficult?

To them I say:

Posted in Cooking, Ranting, Vegetarianism | No Comments »

Did I tell you I bought a bike?  I did!  And as soon as it stops raining I’ll be out riding it.  Watch for the woman looking nervous and afraid of her bicycle.  I haven’t had a bike in about four years and am cautious by nature.  What if I’m going too fast to stop and I fall?  I might scrape my leg and then I’ll GET GANGRENE AND DIE.  When I rode the bike home from the shop a few days ago I actually got off and walked it down the big hill (between Broadway and 4th, for you locals).  I know, I know – total wuss.  I have to work up to being bold.  Bold meaning fast.

But what an exhilarating experience.  I felt like I was a kid again, zooming along on my bike (zooming being, like many things, relative).  I absolutely loved it.  I can’t wait to get out and do more.

When I was little, I was a bike freak.  I remember being in the second grade and cycling up and down our block, which was as far as I was allowed to go on my own, for literally hours at a time.  I always had a bike growing up and would often take it out for a ride, destination optional.  While I was in Halifax, some jackass stole my bike, but now I have a shiny new one.  Huzzah!

Posted in Health, Personal | 2 Comments »

A thought: isn’t it fascinating that grocery stores make you put a quarter or a loonie into the grocery cart to unlock it, so you’ll put the cart away when you’re done to get the money back – and it works?  I find it totally interesting that this tactic actually works.  People really do return the cart when there’s money on the line.  But they really shouldn’t.  I mean, come on.  It’s, what, a quarter? A buck at most.  I would pay one dollar for a grocery cart, if I were the kind of person who wanted a grocery cart.  I’m also quite willing to pay twenty-five cents for the luxury of not walking my cart through the parking lot to the return area.  Why aren’t more people like me?

This is the clincher: Basically everyone I see at the grocery store wastes money.  They buy chips and gum and little plastic clips for keeping the half eaten bag of chips fresh – so obviously they’re not penny pinchers.  Yet they still return the cart for that single coin.  If you think big picture, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense.  If you care so much about that dollar, for god’s sake buy rice instead of frozen pizza!

Maybe other people are just more considerate than me and want to return the cart to be nice… but no.  Remember the bad old days, before the coin slot?  Remember loose carts all over the parking lot?  I tell you the coin thing works.  I have no idea why but it does.  I stand alone as the rebel who leaves the cart wherever, coin in place.  Yes, I’m that jackass.  But think of all the money I’m giving away… really I’m a philanthropist!  You should aspire to be more like me!

Posted in Ranting | 9 Comments »

Oh good lord.  I was going to write a full post but my keyboard has crashed again and I dont have any grammatical marks except periods.  Just imagine the apostrophe where it needs to be in that second sentence.  Sheesh.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Alright.  Yeserday’s crisis has largely resolved.  Sometimes I forget about this thing called reality and get all wrapped up in my own madness to the point where I forget basic things like, we do not have the economy of a small nation at our disposal, or, I can’t live in Chicago for years when my husband has to live here.  One day, when I am old and bitter and mourn the choices I made as a younger woman, I will look back on this post and scream, “You could have gotten better cellphone plans or robbed a bank!”  But for now I am too busy trying to pretend I don’t want more education to indulge in speculation about what the future me would want me to do now.

It’s starting to sound bitter, isn’t it?

How’s this for bitter: my god daughter, who was born very prematurely after a rather shaky and crisis filled pregnancy, might have cerebral palsy.  I don’t know what they do to determine that finally, like, is there a blood test?  But anyway they are looking into it.  This is  real deflation – we thought she’d beat the odds and come out totally healthy and normal.  But there are some things going wrong now.  Even though we shouldn’t be surprised, I am.  And feel sad about it, the poor mite.

Which kind of puts things into perspective for me, you know?

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments »