An Announcement

I am sick of snow!

That is all.

I am following Professor Hale's advice...

...and doing a short post.


Do you ever see bumper stickers or emblems on cars that drive you crazy? I do.

This one for example:

Apparently women need to "misbehave" to make a difference. I guess that goes with the "bitches get things done" attitude.



Or this one:

I dislike this one because it kind of smacks of the "I'm in the club and you're not" mentality.

I don't like this one either:

I have God along for the ride to help me out!

Or this one:

As though evolution was a theory that could be tested through experiments like gravity.

On the subject of evolution, here is the latest installment in the "Christian fish" vs "Darwin fish"
emblem battle:

I guess I just don't like things based on mockery. I've never seen the symbol of another religion such as Judaism or Islam treated in this manner.

Pictorial Evidence (Warning- possible "ew" factor)

Amazingly enough, two of my plants have managed to remain alive. Please note, I have not watered or otherwise cared for them in about 6 weeks since they looked like they were done for.

Resilient things, aren't they?

My finger is healing well. I'll spare you any of the more gory pictures* [you're welcome Ame :)], but here is a view from the front after one of my friends debrieded** it where you can see how straight and neat I cut it. I honestly had no idea that rotary cutters were that sharp. It seems a challenge to get it through more than 4 layers of fabric. It looks so much better already, I think it will be barely noticeable. Here's hoping all of the feeling comes back.





* I am not as weird as that sounds. I took the pictures for my students...a good step by step example of wound healing.

** Sorry if the word or image of debriedment gives you the heebie jeebies. I should also point out that the friend who did so is a qualified medical professional....not just a random "buddy" :)


Maybe one of these days I'll write a well thought out post.

Not for the squeamish

I like to live on the edge. I have dangerous hobbies like quilting. And, tonight, my obsession with the adrenaline rush of quilting has caught up with me.

I have suffered my first quilting injury. Tonight I sliced a part of the tip/side of my left index finger/fingernail off with a rotary cutter.

It was bound to happen sooner or later with a hobby as dangerous as quilting.

It is pretty swollen and throbbing (the orangey stuff is the antibacterial they slathered on), but at least the doc said she was hopeful I would not lose my fingernail and that once it heals it shouldn't be, in her words, "too badly deformed".

Men and women are different

Men and women are different.

Shocking, isn't it? I have recently been spending some time in the anatomy lab examining cadaveric specimens and I have been struck, once again, at the anatomical differences between men and women. I am not referring to the obvious external differences in reproductive organs, height or body hair either. The muscles of men are obviously thicker, and longer, and even the muscle fascicula (bundles of muscle fibers) of men are visibly larger in girth. Combined with the greater force available via the longer lever arms associated with longer limbs on average, is it any wonder that men are so much stronger than women?

The other difference I noticed was the variation in subcutaneous fat between men and women. Women have an obviously thicker layer of the fat that lies directly below the skin (I am not referring to general body fat, just to the layer of fat that is sort of attached to the skin). It is what makes women's bodies generally more rounded and less angular than men's.

So, yes, men and women are different on the inside as well as the outside.

The generous people who donate their bodies so that those of us in medical professions can learn about anatomy come in all different shapes and sizes. And, sadly, different ages. The specimens currently in the lab ranged in age from early 30s to 80s at the times of their deaths. The youngest was a woman who died from cancer when she was 31 years old. 31 years old.

This week I also attended the funeral of an elderly family member. During the service one of the thoughts that ran through my mind was this, life is short. Whether you die when you are 31 or 88, life is short. Make the most of it. Take some chances and live.

Peepul R Dumm

When on vacation last week my glass of iced tea was placed upon this cocktail napkin depicting the southern coast of Maine.


A closer look at the napkin reveals this important warning: "Not to be used for navigation"


It reminds me of the therapeutic whirlpool at a clinic I used to work at. On the side of the tub it said, "WARNING: DO NOT HOLD THE PATIENT'S HEAD UNDER WATER WHILE IN WHIRLPOOL."


Of course, it's probably better to be stupid enough to try to navigate from a napkin or hold your patient's head under water than to be a PLANT KILLER! This is what I came home from vacation to:

I've been watering them hoping they bounce back. But, it doesn't look good :( (especially the middle one)

Sex, marriage, humanity and hat tricks

Since I appear to currently be unable to produce an entire post on one subject that makes sense, and in imitation of Elusive Wapiti and Terri at Breathing Grace, I present to you, a potpourri of topics.


Sex and Marriage


In the comments to my post Um....yeah (brilliant title, isn't it?) Elusive Wapiti and I had a brief exchange about the role of sex in the marrying of a man and a woman. Briefly, I said that in the old testament sex = marriage, so to God, sex = marriage, and EW said nuh uh (okay, there was more to it than that...go read the comments and the post EW linked to). I'm still not sure what I think about this because of questions that I have about some scriptures. In a comment I made that was buried in the other comments, I said the following:


"I remember reading that post about Bristol and Levi last year. To be honest I am not certain what I think about this issue and perhaps it is a matter of semantics. Does "marriage" occur during the sexual act? I'm not sure, but it kinda sounds like it if you read about Isaac and Rebekah. Even so, if it is not the joining of the two into one flesh that "marries" the man and woman, in both Deut 22 and Lev 22 God commands that if a man has sex with an un-betrothed virgin that he MUST marry her. If he does not marry her and goes on to have sex with another he is having sex with someone other than the woman God commanded that he must marry. It may not be adultery by strict definition but I don't understand how the functional impact is any different.So, I guess what I would say in response is to ask what you would say about the following:- What about Isaac and Rebekah? It appears that their marriage did occur when he "took" her. -What about Deut 22 and Lev 22 that says if a man sleeps with a virgin he must marry her?"


So, what do y'all think?


Humanity

I get annoyed with many "politically correct" ideas. For example, what was the point of changing the tag line "To boldly go where no man has gone before" to "To boldly go where no one has gone before" in the new Star Trek movie (which was a great flick)? However I do insist that my students use what is called "person first language" when referring to our patients/clients. This means we do not call someone a "stroke" or a "nerve injury", we call them a person who has had a stroke, or a person who has had a nerve injury. I insist on this because it is important to see someone as a person, not a diagnosis, and because calling someone a "head injury" is dehumanizing. Other examples of dehumanization include when the Nazis transported the Jews in cattle cars and called them "dogs", and those who are pro-abortion insisting that a baby be called a "fetus" before birth. It's tough to kill people when you think of them as human beings.

Lesser ill will than murder is associated with dehumanization as well. Some feminists call men "animals" to make them easier to distrust and despise. Recently a commenter at MarkyMark's referred to women as "sweaty bags of cellulite". Well.... I'm not quite sure what to say about that other than ask the following. Do you really need to dehumanize women to make the decision for yourself that you don't want to marry or associate with women? If the answer to that question is no, why do it? If it is yes, maybe you should ask yourself why.

Hat tricks


Woo Hoo!!! Geno Malkin had a hat trick last night as the Penguins beat the Hurricanes 7-4 in game 2 of the NHL eastern conference finals. First playoff hat trick for the Pens since who knows when. Stanley Cup predictions anyone? I say it will be the Pens and Red Wings again, but this time my Pens will win (Why, yes, I was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area. Yes, I am a homer. Whatever made you ask those questions? ;) ).

Um....yeah

Writer's block...sigh.


Writer's block = bad thing, especially when it comes to a dissertation. It is getting so bad that I am having increasing difficulty expressing myself in other areas as well, including on this blog. I have started to write three different posts over the course of the past week or so, and....nothing. Maybe I need to do some quilting or something.


So, brace yourselves, and please be prepared for babbling, incoherency, and errors in spelling and grammar.


-This weekend, I think I sat through the absolute worst commencement address that I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing. It was so bad that it became funny. I was very thankful I was in the back row of faculty on the platform because I had to cover my face several times to muffle laughter. The progression from polite attention to boredom to incredulity to suppressed laughter on the faces of the audience was, however, quite entertaining.

-Carolyn McCully put into words part of what I have been thinking on for a while, with regard to physical beauty, but have been unable to coherently address, in a post last week. (yes, I think I do have too many commas in that sentence)

"What about complimenting her when she is doing beautiful things? We always hear that inner beauty is supposed to be more important than outer beauty, but it doesn't seem to get praised as often--which tempts women to doubt the veracity of that statement."Why do we women doubt the appeal of inner beauty? Well, to be candid, it's because we forget that our Creator is the ultimate arbiter of beauty. We are awash in makeover messages and as such His perspective is often silenced. From TV shows to magazines, we are drowning in Before and After images. At any given time during a day, there's a roomful of people on TV gushing and crying over the physical transformation of some reality show participant. Everybody and his neighbor shows up to applaud weight loss, a new hairstyle, or a wardrobe overhaul. But where is the applause for inner beauty? Where are the TV cameras for the Big Reveal of a renovated character"

In a culture where women are judged and valued on the basis of their attractiveness is it any wonder that inner beauty has taken a back seat? Has our culture simply received what we have asked for? Is there any cultural reinforcement of "inner beauty"?

-In a related line of thinking, lets talk about virginity.

Valued by some, but not by others? While God's call for sexual abstinence outside of marriage has not changed, the secular culture appears to have lost all regard for virginity outside of the young. Otherwise it is regarded as a quaint conviction or possibly born of immaturity or some sort of pathology. Even within the church, sexual abstinence is regarded by some as culturally irrelevant or improbable.

Valued in some, but not in others? While some young women have taken to auctioning their virginity to the highest bidder, I doubt that a 30+ year old virginal woman or a man of any age would get many bids. Clearly the value placed in "virginity" for auction is not about virginity per se. Even in less crass circumstances, I wonder how much of the value of virginity that does exist is about the value of obedience to God?

Over-valued by some? How many sins are there that change how you are defined as a person after one incidence? We are all sinners, are we not? We've all joined Jimmy Carter in lusting in our hearts, have we not? Do we rule out others as mates who have lied once in their life? When it is said that you should only marry a virgin, is that because they have been obedient to God, or for some other reason?

Okay, that is enough rambling for now. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Blogging friends

One of the things that this blog has brought to me, that I did not expect, is new friends. I have found myself rejoicing with others in good things and grieving with them in the bad. In small ways I feel like I know you when I visit your blogs and when you come here and comment too.

I have been blessed to get to know some of you better than that as well through email as well as through telephone calls. Today, I was especially excited to meet one of my readers in person :) She is the reserved sort, so she doesn't comment much. I shall refer to her as The Librarian (Hi!) We met halfway between her home and mine for lunch and a visit.

We spent around three and a half hours visiting and talking about her upcoming move and marriage (first marriage at age 47...there's hope yet!), agreeing that it is a fact that bald men are hot, discovering a mutual interest in science fiction, and puzzling at the "definitions" of the alpha, beta, and gamma "types" (The Librarian hypothesized that perhaps Bill Clinton is an Alpha, Rahm Emanuel a Beta, and Timothy Geithner a Gamma....I was lost.) She is sweet and lovely and funny as heck!

I also discovered another reason to not make the title of my posts "Boobs". This morning, The Librarian attempted to access the email I sent her that contained my cell phone number. But, she was restricted from doing so because the library had a filter that would not allow her to view the email because the subject line was "Boobs" because it was a long string of emails that started with The Librarian's thoughts on my "Boobs" post. Heh

Because I am a much better verbal than written communicator (or I should say normally...The Librarian witnessed the PhD dementia in person) I sometimes wish that we all could have a conversation with each other instead of communicating through written comments. So this was a really great experience for me, and I hope for my new friend The Librarian, too :) Now, if I can only get to Dallas! ;)

Have you ever met a blogging friend in person? How was it?

(Okay, I have had to edit this post at least 5 times already because Blogger is making me nuts! And because I keep remembering other things I want to say)

On the road

(Now with pictures!)

I have been away for the past week to attend a work related conference. Here are my impressions:

1. I live in a beautiful state.

2. I drove through/visited five states that I have never been to before.

3. Chatanooga Tennesee looks like nice place.

4. Alabama looked pretty nice too.

5. Mississippi? Hmm...flat and kinda boring. (sorry any Mississippi visitors)

6. Louisiana? Um...flat, swampy, and huge juicy bugs plastered on the front of the vehicle. Saw a snake. Looked for an alligator but didn't see one :(




7. New Orleans? Yikes, the damage. The humidity. The above ground graveyards (what would you call that? Crypts?) were pretty freaky too.




8. Texas. Good food (but eastern NC barbeque is better than Texas barbeque). Saw an armadillo. I didn't realize there would be palm trees in Texas. Flat. Boring terrain. Hot. Humid.(sorry Texans....especially Ame!)

9. I was very happy to get home to my mountains.

Oh, and the conference was great too :)

Why??????

Sometimes Blogger drives me crazy. Can someone tell me why the post I published yesterday had a date four days ago on it until I went in and edited it?

Father and daughter bonding

A conversation with my father on the occasion of my birthday.

Learner's Dad: One day you're deciding what color lipstick to wear and before you know it you're 40.

Learner: I'm 43 now Daddy (Yes, I call him Daddy. What of it?)

Learner's Dad: You're 43?

Learner: Yep

Learner's Dad: 43? When are you getting married?

Learner: I don't know. Gotta meet someone before I can marry them.

Learner's Dad: Your mother and I met a guy.

Learner: Oh? Where?

Learner's Dad: One of the home care nurses.

Learner: Oh yeah?

Learner's Dad: Really nice guy...and funny. A bit older than you. You'd like him.

Learner: You think so?

Learner's Dad: Yeah. But, he may be gay or married.

It took my Dad a minute to think that was as funny as I did.

Signs

No, I don't mean the movie Signs, though I love that movie. I mean signs of Spring.


Here are some of the crocus from my parent's front garden. There were also pretty white, yellow, and paler lavender ones but my camera battery chose that moment to die on me so I was unable to take more pictures.

I successfully defended my dissertation proposal yesterday. A big thank you to those of you who were aware that was happening and were praying for me.

Uncle

Okay, I give up. I have been having an exchange over at MarkyMark's, trying to understand this apparent need for some men to paint all women with a broad brush. But, now that it has devolved to the point that instead of responding to me, people are talking about me, I think it is probably best for me to let it go. My question remains unanswered, which is frustrating for me. I would prefer to continue to try to gain understanding, but if the response is talking about me in the third person rather than addressing what I say, I don't see how understanding can happen. (I would really like to ask in what way I have been hypocritical...if anyone can let me know I would appreciate it)

Blue skies

It has been pretty cold here lately, but the sky has also been a beautiful blue. Maybe Spring is not too far away.

I'm a nerd, what should I do?

That was the question some Swedish person was searching for the answer to. My advice? Roll with it. Embrace your nerdiness.

(click on picture for larger image)

But, I don't have answers to all the searches that lead people here.

(click on picture for larger image...or not since it won't link and I don't know why. The search words read, "gay men have narrow waists and wider hips photos")

So, do gay men have narrow waists and wider hips?

A freak of nature

Today I received an email invitation to participate in the research project study of a student at another university who wanted to compare the personality types of people in my profession with people in a related profession. Even though I usually find that sort of research question a bit of a waste of time (because, why does it matter?), I consented to participate because my students often solicit others for study participation so I usually try to return the favor. I was directed to click on a link to take a Jung Typology personality test. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was based on Jungian psychology, so the personality type results are similar. If you want to take the test (it doesn't take long) you can do so here.

It turns out I am an INFJ (introvert-intuitive-feeling-judging, or a "idealist counselor" according to the Keirsey Personality sorter), like Sidney Poitier and Jordan's Queen Noor (um.....okay). I was not surprised by this. If I had read the descriptions before taking the test I would have thought this type fit me best. What I didn't know was that INFJ is the most rare of the 16 personality types, describing only about 1.5% of people. So, apparently I am an oddity and a freak of nature. "Weird", if you will. (I'll spare you most other things about me that may be outside of the norm....you're welcome)

Since I have been teaching the last 6 years or so I have taken an inordinate amount of pleasure in doing things that may cause some of my students to perceive me as weird. I suggest they may get extra credit for answering in class with a foreign accent. I sing badly and perform even worse dance moves during lectures. I make sound effects when demonstrating hands-on techniques. I make fun of myself and tell stories about my past mistakes. I embrace my intrinsic goofiness. The more they make "oh my word, she is weird" faces at each other or roll their eyes at me, the more it entertains me. I guess I am comfortable with the weird. To me it is normal, average even.

After several discussions I have read on some blogs lately, I have been thinking a lot about perceptions and how they may be influenced by our experience. I'll come back to that in the next several days, but for now I'd love to hear about your thoughts on your experience with personality tests and your results if you care to share them.

Prayer request

My good friend Jonathan is in Japan on a missions trip until February 25th. Please join me in remembering him in prayer when you are talking to the Father. You can check out his blog for details.

New label tags

I have added labels to all posts (why I didn't do this when I started this blog in October of 2007, I don't know) so you can now scour the vast ramblings contained in these pages. I know you're excited!

More Fluff

A Wordle of this blog.