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| All your blanket are belong to us! |
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Friday, February 12, 2016
The Grandeur In This View of Life
Labels:
philosophy,
science
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
-Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
February 12th would be the 207th birthday of Charles Darwin. I made a bushy, branching tree of life green tea cake:
And here is "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", the symphonic rock version:
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Caturday Post: Cats Stealing My Chair
Labels:
cats
They make not even the slightest pretense of guilt.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Enthusiastic Consent for Everyone, Jade Empire Style
Labels:
computer games,
ethics,
priorities
The computer game Jade Empire has several possible romance paths. Having played two so far, I want to note that
I am sad that policing number and gender of persons involved is still more important socially than enthusiastic consent by all involved, birth control, disease protection, bodily autonomy, trust, or respect.
*Link goes to Scarleteen, an inclusive and comprehensive sex education site. Possibly not safe for work.
- A hetero romance video sequence for the deciding-we-like-and-trust-each-other-enough-for-fun-sexytimes*-and-heck-we-may-all-die-in-battle-tomorrow moment finishes with a kiss: the theatrically classic, one-person-bent-over backwards-kiss:
- But a lesbian romance fades to black before we actually get to the kiss. So, good for the programmers to include this romance option, but...what happened? Threatened by our freedom-to think-as-they-think-loving American censors, or just not brave enough to keep going?
I am sad that policing number and gender of persons involved is still more important socially than enthusiastic consent by all involved, birth control, disease protection, bodily autonomy, trust, or respect.
*Link goes to Scarleteen, an inclusive and comprehensive sex education site. Possibly not safe for work.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Missionaries and the Book of Mormon
I went to Book of Mormon expecting to have a good time and more vindication for my dislike of missionaries. I was really surprised to get a serious plot addressing a lot of major real issues. Female genital mutilation and the belief that sex with virgins will cure HIV/AIDS (and destructive consequences resulting therefrom) are major plot points. There is a musical with FGM as a major plot point. I have the astonishment. I also felt far more empathy with the missionary Mormon elders than I expected. The group of them sent to Uganda sing that when they have feelings they shouldn't feel, they simply turn those feelings off. Then they take turns singing about the various abuses they have suffered or about being gay and conclude "turn it off." Even when they all put on sparkly vests and tap dance at the end of the song, it's never quite just fun because I feel so bad for them. Later, it develops that the elders are largely motivated by avoiding horrifying hell dreams (though the hell dreams contain more tap dancing.) and I can't even be really irritated at the obvious obliviousness as all the U.S. missionaries sing "We are Africa."
The musical does hit on several of my major gripes with missionaries, the complete lack of any meaningful training and accountability, the continuing to go where many missionaries have gone before, promising a better place, and then just leaving to their world more full of luxury and infrastructure. Also, and related to lack of training and accountability, missionaries can, and do, tell people anything whatsoever and for some reason are often accepted as authorities. My friend the VA nurse, with whom I was attending Book of Mormon, told me that at one point she was stationed in Honduras and there were a large number of women feeding their babies sugar water in bottles because some missionaries had told them breastfeeding was bad. So while the musical's solutions to problems like FGM and raping virgiins to cure HIV/AIDS is to use missionaries to just tell people that god says these things shouldn't happen, that doesn't lead to so happy an ending as it could, because, well, this is set in Uganda. In Uganda, missionaries get people killed for being gay. Just having some not evil missionaries around is not enough.
As a musical it hangs together very well. There's a lot of show stopping numbers and funny moments, interspersed with the sad realities of life. My favorite thing, however, may be that that the Latter Day Saints actually advertise in the playbill. Multiple times. They are actually contributing lots of money to this musical. Fabulous.
The musical does hit on several of my major gripes with missionaries, the complete lack of any meaningful training and accountability, the continuing to go where many missionaries have gone before, promising a better place, and then just leaving to their world more full of luxury and infrastructure. Also, and related to lack of training and accountability, missionaries can, and do, tell people anything whatsoever and for some reason are often accepted as authorities. My friend the VA nurse, with whom I was attending Book of Mormon, told me that at one point she was stationed in Honduras and there were a large number of women feeding their babies sugar water in bottles because some missionaries had told them breastfeeding was bad. So while the musical's solutions to problems like FGM and raping virgiins to cure HIV/AIDS is to use missionaries to just tell people that god says these things shouldn't happen, that doesn't lead to so happy an ending as it could, because, well, this is set in Uganda. In Uganda, missionaries get people killed for being gay. Just having some not evil missionaries around is not enough.
As a musical it hangs together very well. There's a lot of show stopping numbers and funny moments, interspersed with the sad realities of life. My favorite thing, however, may be that that the Latter Day Saints actually advertise in the playbill. Multiple times. They are actually contributing lots of money to this musical. Fabulous.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Triple Orange Spice Cookies with Buxtehude And Gloomy Ruminations In the Cold Dark End of Winter
Labels:
food,
overthinking it
Put on Buxtehude's ciaccona en mi (BuxWV160) and grate enough orange peel for about 2 tablespoons (2-3 oranges). Squeeze said oranges for 1/4 cup of juice. Sigh longingly in remembrance of the heat of the summer sun.
Start Buxtehude's passacaglia en re (BuxWV161) and cream 3/4 cup of shortening and 1 cup brown sugar. Move on to sonata III en sol (BuxWV261) and mix in 1 egg, 2 teaspoons baking power, 1/4 teaspoon salt, orange peel, orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon orange extract, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon cardamom. Blend in 2 and 1/8 cup white flour. Meditate on how Europeans and Americans (non-native) destroyed the peoples of more than half the world in making these spices cheap and readily available and let the chill seep into your soul and your dough (alternatively, use a refrigerator). Chill dough thoroughly (but do not freeze solid unless you are storing it for later).
Start oven heating to 375 F. Start this playlist of Buxtehude at 3:45, because baroque canons rock.
Roll dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter, dip one side in white sugar, and place about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes or until just barely browning on bottom. Angst that you will cook the cookies either too much or too little, hovering anxiously before the oven and wringing your hands inside their oven mitts. Cookies should still be very soft (although not gooey) when taken out of oven. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
Eat, reveling in samsara. For better karma, share.
Start Buxtehude's passacaglia en re (BuxWV161) and cream 3/4 cup of shortening and 1 cup brown sugar. Move on to sonata III en sol (BuxWV261) and mix in 1 egg, 2 teaspoons baking power, 1/4 teaspoon salt, orange peel, orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon orange extract, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon cardamom. Blend in 2 and 1/8 cup white flour. Meditate on how Europeans and Americans (non-native) destroyed the peoples of more than half the world in making these spices cheap and readily available and let the chill seep into your soul and your dough (alternatively, use a refrigerator). Chill dough thoroughly (but do not freeze solid unless you are storing it for later).
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| The wealth of the orient. |
Start oven heating to 375 F. Start this playlist of Buxtehude at 3:45, because baroque canons rock.
Roll dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter, dip one side in white sugar, and place about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes or until just barely browning on bottom. Angst that you will cook the cookies either too much or too little, hovering anxiously before the oven and wringing your hands inside their oven mitts. Cookies should still be very soft (although not gooey) when taken out of oven. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before removing from baking sheet.
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