Un-spoilers, ljdq, Metropolis, chapstick, etc

[holdouttrout]

First: I am not going to watch Continuum before it arrives at my door. I don't care how old-school this makes me--I love the suspense and impatience of waiting, and I'm not giving that up.

Second, A Christian response to the Gloucester pregnancy pact. I know it's not indicative of all Christian thought on the subject, but it is an interesting read, and there are a couple of things I thought were worth thinking about.



Tell a selfish, directionless sixteen-year-old girl that a child will radically change her life, and you might find her saying, “Yeah, that’s what I want.”

Which is a point I've seen elsewhere, but it bears repeating. If a girl sees no other good options, she might think having a child is a way into a different life, to a life where she's loved, even if it's just by one other person.

I also found a couple of things to critique:

the single greatest disaster for any woman in the Bible is barrenness, not the failure of a son or daughter to get into a good college or become a high-income professional.

Um, yeah. Because women were valuable only for bearing children. That's not necessarily the social structure I want to live in. Also, I'm glad that we can worry about other things, like our kids getting into college, now. To me, that suggests progress over mere survival as our priority.

But one important caveat: At Gloucester High, I’d like to see the “marriage pact” as part of the mix.

OH, boy. Yes, becuase teenagers who get married to have sex are definitely going to be happier than teenagers who don't. Personally, I'm glad I didn't have to get married before age 20--I even have Biblical advice in my favor, should I not want to get married at all: I Corinthians 7: 32-34:

I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. (NIV)

Bother.




I definitely intend to play this week's ljdq. The only problem is that I don't feel particularly witty this week. *sighs*

My Grand Chapstick Experiment, wherein I attempt to discover if I am, indeed, addicted to chapstick, is going rather well. I'm allowing myself lotion instead of any straight lip product, which is at least SOMETHING, and I can feel my lips again, which is...kinda awkward. *g* I did give in the night before last when I was going to bed, and OMG, the BLISS. But since then, I haven't really felt like I needed it. I have a little bit of a rough patch on the top of my top lip, but I think that's because I've had an uber-runny nose the past three days and have used copious amounts of kleenex.

Finally, via rm, Metropolis has been found! For those of you not up on your silent films, Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, is The Iconic Speculative Sci Fi Movie. It's really cool to watch it, because so many later sci-fi movies completely ripped it off paid homage to it. Anyway, after 1927, several scenes of the movie were reported completely lost, but they finally resurfaced. So cool! I shall have to make KR watch it with me again when the new scenes are released...bwa ha ha!

Comments

[gabolange.livejournal.com]

I am so not in the right frame of mind to respond to anything anywhere with any sort of sense, but may I point out that this:

the single greatest disaster for any woman in the Bible is barrenness, not the failure of a son or daughter to get into a good college or become a high-income professional.

This is possibly one of the most offensive things I have ever heard. Yes, it does say "in the Bible." But, at least without further context, it seems to imply that we should be living my Biblical standards. And the idea that a woman is defined--nay, is valued--merely by her ability to bear children, regardless of her hopes, dreams, wishes, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, or personal preference is just the most demeaning, dehumanizing thing ever.

Also, we can have a spoiler-free watching-Continuum-on-July-29 pact, right? :)

[pcrackenhead.livejournal.com]

Really, with all the overpopulation problems the world is having, it's better that teens have kids recklessly, rather than question if kids are a part of their future? Sometimes I just don't get some people's logic, he does know the world has changed some in 2,000+ years, doesn't he?

*le sigh*

Woah, they found the original version of Metropolis?! Interesting where stuff like that turns up, Argentina, go figure.

Other than showing so many themes of future of sci-fi movies, it also gave an interesting look into a Socialist perspective without either the negative context of The Soviet Union or Nazi Germany attached to it.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

And the idea that a woman is defined--nay, is valued--merely by her ability to bear children, regardless of her hopes, dreams, wishes, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, or personal preference is just the most demeaning, dehumanizing thing ever.

Yeah. Just nothing else to say there. I mean, this is written to a Christian audience, but even so--it's very blind to reality on many levels.

Also, we can have a spoiler-free watching-Continuum-on-July-29 pact, right? :)

*signs on the dotted line*

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

It's such an awesome movie! I love it, and am WAY excited about the pieces of footage. And Argentina! From GERMANY!

So cool.

[annienau08.livejournal.com]

I am not going to watch Continuum before it arrives at my door.

Me, neither. (We should form a support group or something.)

[pcrackenhead.livejournal.com]

I know, Argentina-Germany connection, the connection makes sense...maybe a little too much sense...<unfounded suspicion />

(And yes, even my thought bubbles are in XML ;)

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

You can sign the pact gabolange and I have going. *grins*

[knightedrogue.livejournal.com]

... I will watch whatevah you wish, darling.

Just ... no giant circular gates, mkay? :)

Kidding, kidding.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

U R SO MEEN 2 ME!

*grumps sarcastically*

[qtheallpowerful.livejournal.com]

Let me start by saying that I don't know the topic at hand, becuase I stay away from the news. However, I will be doing a google search on it when i get home from work. That being said, the single greatest disaster for any woman in the Bible is barrenness, not the failure of a son or daughter to get into a good college or become a high-income professional. Is compleatly incorrect. If one were to actually look, they would find that the directive to have children applies only the men. Men are commanded to be fruitful and multiply, women have no such obligation. Of course, the men need us to have the children...

...More on this later, I need to get back to work.

[annienau08.livejournal.com]

Also, we can have a spoiler-free watching-Continuum-on-July-29 pact, right? :)

Add me to the list. :)

[beanpot.livejournal.com]

I love the Burt's Bees lip balm in the worse way.

I'd comment on your comments to the article, but my brain is asleep. But the whole barren woman thing makes me want to...do bad things to stupid and mean people.

[gdwatson.livejournal.com]

"Really, with all the overpopulation problems the world is having, it's better that teens have kids recklessly, rather than question if kids are a part of their future?"

I thought the U.S. was just barely below the replacement rate of births?

[gdwatson.livejournal.com]

Also, your attributes (e.g., suspicion) have to have values in XML, unlike traditional HTML. Of course, that could be <unfounded-suspicion/> :-P

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

So...since we need to have more kids to replace our population, teenagers need to get pregnant?

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Interesting interpretation. I'd like to hear more.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Going without balm/chapstick has been very interesting.

[pulsar4529.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll guess I'll just continue on with the greatest disaster of my life by controlling my future with my barrenness.

I'll stick to cats because personally, the greatest disaster in my life would be me messing up at work and causing the deaths of many people.

I'm not watching Continuum until it comes out either. I'm even still debating if I should pre-order the two copies (need to send one to a friend) or if I should try to find one right after work.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

I tried to find copies in the store last time, but I didn't see any. :-(

I'm with you on the barrenness thing, though.

[pcrackenhead.livejournal.com]

It actually did have the hyphen in it, as per your quoted tag, but for some reason LJ stripped it out. Silly thing. >:(

[pulsar4529.livejournal.com]

If you're still looking for a bike, someone at work has been recommending this place: http://communitycyclingcenter.org/

You can buy a refurbished used bike, and donate your old bike at the same time.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link (though I liked the cat, too!)

[gdwatson.livejournal.com]

Umm... no. I was just questioning the relevance of overpopulation.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I was trying to tease, but didn't quite manage it.

[terranlily.livejournal.com]

My Grand Chapstick Experiment, wherein I attempt to discover if I am, indeed, addicted to chapstick, is going rather well. I'm allowing myself lotion instead of any straight lip product, which is at least SOMETHING, and I can feel my lips again, which is...kinda awkward. *g* I did give in the night before last when I was going to bed, and OMG, the BLISS. But since then, I haven't really felt like I needed it.

I just had to comment on this. I, too, was a lip balm addict. I have been "clean" for almost two years after having been addicted from about age 16 to age 36. After developing sensitivities to almost any additives (flavors, fragrances, "medications"), I had switched to pure vaseline figuring how could that be wrong. It was pure and inert, right? Wrong. When I couldn't figure out why my generalized mouth area of my face got more red and more rashy, I saw a dermatologist. He said that he had been ridiculed for suggesting that people could become allergic to Vaseline, but he still asked me to try going without for two weeks to see what happened. No oils, lotions or creams, either. Just wash with mild soap after eating. And no licking my lips either.

For the first week or so, I was miserable, I had trouble sleeping and even cried a few times. In time, I found my skin clearing up. And a few weeks later, my lips started producing their "emollients" again. The only thing I allow myself is Cetaphil hand lotion only 1-2 times per day. Turns out any petroleum distillate is now my enemy - no petrolatum and no mineral oil. Now that I am healed I can now risk a little lipstick on rare occasion.

This is kind of interesting. http://www.kevdo.com/lipbalm/recovery.html#new

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Reading through some of the "testimonials" about people who had been addicted to chapstick, I couldn't decide whether it was a joke or not. I suspect that it's some of both, and I'm glad you weighed in with your own here.

I haven't "used" now for four or five days, and it's definitely a lot easier now than it was that second day--I seriously thought I might crawl out of my skin! I've been trying to not lick my lips, either, and that seems to help a lot. I noticed that I was getting rough patches on my top lip, and when I stopped the chapstick, they started itching like mad and peeling. BUT, now that they have peeled, they feel fine. In fact, I put on a teeny bit of lip balm yesterday because I had no lotion with me, and it felt bizarre.

[gdwatson.livejournal.com]

Been there

By the way, did you see the folks who insisted that this whole thing was caused by insufficient sex-education? They were trying to get pregnant and succeeded-- I'm not sure where the hole is in their education. But apparently someone thinks there was one. :-P

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Bwa ha ha!

Yeah. I don't know about that--I think what most people think they needed was more education about what being a parent really means. Dude. I know I wouldn't have wanted all the responsibility from parenting--by myself--at that age.