Tuesday, July 28, 2009

With this ring, I thee wed

A symbol of etermal love, trust, acceptance, and matrimony. The wedding band is afixed upon our left "ring" finger (although, in Greek culture it is placed on the right ring finger) as an outward symbol of the commitment we have made to someone. Note, an OUTWARD symbol. It's like an alarm bell to onlookers.

I was walking through Wal Mart the other day and nearly crashed into a moderate looking guy as he was coming through the bike section. My immediate reaction was to look down at his left hand. I did it, noticed that there was no ring, gave a small smile and excused myself. What is this trashy action that I am now doing?
It was so obvious to me as soon as I'd done it. I've reached an age where being married is expected and single persons must mind their boundaries when searching for partners. I hadn't realized that this had happened! I had, however, realized that I started accepting bald(ing) men as attractive. After this realization, I wondered what did that ring really mean anymore.

I found myself thinking, "what if this guy IS married and he and his wife have chosen not to wear rings" or "what if he isn't married but is in a committed relationship?". Normal things to ponder, considering the state of marriage in America. Statistics are bad; religious views affect perceptions about it; legal institutions affect our need for it. I want to know how people REALLY feel about marriage.
I have several friends who are married and they all fall under different religious views. Until recently, I had not really examined what marriage meant in the strict Christian world (despite the fact that I was raised Catholic). But, what is the ultimate drive for wanting to get married? Is that outward expression really a symbol of an inward feeling?

Either way, I will continue to refrain from hitting on men with wedding bands on.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Lazy Links

I have a bunch of work to do today, so Reader it is!


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Before I go home links

Stuff:
11 movie soundtracks that were better than the movie. Agreed.
Canada's 'weed mine' may be lost.
Church of England offers 2-in-1 ceremonies. What a great job they've done this time! Get baptized AND married TODAY!
Metro sexual is OUT. This article claims that flashiness is now less important to men during this recession, but I see just as many douche-holes now as I did before...
Volcanoes vs lightening. Very cool pics


Life:All very helpful and relevant right now!
Who is worthy of love?. I like Mikko's articles. He often writes about and says things that I'd like to discuss with people. Somewhere, all too many people have felt that they didn't deserve some basic emotional needs. Mikko kind of talks about this, but I don't think it's enough to address some more deep issues. But it's a great start to making people wake up to what they're worth (or in some cases, learning how little that is).

Acceptance. Life tries to teach us to accept all things, good and bad, and not skew our perceptions about things that simply are. We don't get angered at the existence of gravity, so why do we become angry that there was a car accident that just put us behind schedule? You can't help these things and just have to accept them and some other general curveballs that get tossed your way in life. The article dares readers to learn to judge less and accept more.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Late lunch links

Sufjan Stevens has a new release. The BQE is now available...

Google Earth now goes to the moon
WWJD?. Read some 'scholarly' speculations on what Jesus would do about healthcare...
Last giant tortoise mates at age 90. Dirty old man. Also in evolution, a page on Discover mag of six spots of evolutionary growth.

Also, note :Recall on romaine lettuce

Motivational Posters of the day. Some of these are good. If these are your thing, you should check out demotivational.com.

Fertility and you (yes you, not me!)

Trying to get pregnant? Here's some things you should know:
According to a study by Walter Willet, diet can have an affect on fertility. Scientific American listens as he describes how low insulin reception, low-fat milk and bad fats can affect a woman's ability to conceive. He also addresses the caffeine debate, and whether or not coffee and tea actually have any affect on an existing pregnancy. The link above has the SA podcast as well as the transcribed interview.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Late day links

A few for the day:

Funny:
Crazy lady of the day from List of the Day
Redneck cakes from List of the Day
Obey road signs!. This is a good one.
City Council loves farts

News:
Tests on spinal fluid may detect Alzheimer's sooner
Now you can buy camel milk chocolates
Madoff Bill. Charge rich criminals for their jail stay? Sounds good to me.

Life:
10 ways to overcome procrastination. One of which should be "stop posting on your blog".

Don't try to win a staring contest with a cat. They just don't blink. Creepy-eyed buggers.

The Divinyls talked about it....

Sex with yourself. I'd better post about it. The Relationship Journal that I often read had an article today about masturbation so I decided to bring it up.

Recently, a young woman stabbed the shit out of her boyfriend when she came home and found him jerking it, and not but a week or so ago I read a pseudo-debate on Relevant Mag's site about whether or not masturbation is a sin.
I get a bit riled up over the latter. I do not condone stabbing people for any reason, but I find that I disagree almost whole heartedly with some of the commenters on the Relevant article. Mikko, the author of The Relationship journal, briefly addresses where sex and spirtuality meet; however, some people believe that self satisfaction is of the devil and has no place in a relgious person's life.

Words?

Mine I will keep at a minimum, and would like to hear what a more diverse group thinks (as if I have any readers, much less diverse ones!). What I will say is that I think that masturbation should be discussed and kept in the open. My first problem with it's connotation in the Christian world is that it is taboo, and at least Relevant decided to talk about it. It's a part of life, and our bodies, and keeping anything hush-hush creates a feeling of guilt and shame and no matter where you fall, no one deserves to feel that way.
I will also toss this in: Saying that masturbation ruined your marriage/sex life (in our out of a marriage) is like saying that eating Raisin Bran ruined your marriage. The actual act didn't; someone's feelings about or behind the act did.

I have to ask myself if our society has a warped view of self satisfaction and if this, like many other things, are simply the scapegoat for some other issues?

To quote George Michael: "Sex is natural, sex is fun! Sex is best when it's one on one"

Friday, July 17, 2009

Late night Friday links

I've been busy, I've been away! Work has been nuts so I haven't been able to compile any links. Here are some quick ones for the weekend:

10 best cover songs. Do you agree? Me, not so much...
How lasers make lame pictures better
Fonolo now records CS calls. The service will now tap into the automated call line for you, connect you when the rep answers, and can record the call for you. I wish I'd had this when I called Cox Cable a few months ago...
Cussing may raise your pain threshold
'Jane Roe' of Roe vs Wade arrested during a protest
Vinland map of America is authentic. The first map to ever show part of America BEFORE Colombus "found" it.
Onion juice used to make electricity. We really are going "green", aren't we?

Monday, July 6, 2009

Post vacation links

Didn't have too much to share today aside from a few geeky links:

Are certain genders or types of people more persuasive?
Ever wondered what's in those fireworks?
Fructose may impair memory. Scientists are learning more about how fructose affects our bodies and the damage may not be limited to just our metabolism.
Overweight girls are more lonely. No shit, sherlock.

Some sp@m:
http://myveryworstdate.com/
My friends find these ridiculous sites and then I waste all of my free time looking at them. I've gone through three pages. Sheesh.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Thursday's pre-vacation links

Not much to share today, just more job related links.

Top 10 most flexible jobs
Top 10 home office jobs.

Hmm, think it's time for a career change....

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Wednesday Links

I have a lot of work to get through so I am going to take a particularly short route in providing links for today. Take a glimpse at my Google Reader. Beware, some items are NWS.




There's also an article hereabout a recall on e.coli infected Nestle cookie dough.

An interesting article hereon new findings in fertility in men.


Have at it!