No Need For Driving

The eclipse happened today. I ordered some glasses recommended by the NASA website and I'd planned to drive south to get into the path of totality...  but the forecast called for clouds all down route I-57 so... meh.  

That being said, the sun did peek out in and out of the clouds and I had a lot of fun running around the block sharing my glasses with folks I caught outdoors.  I had two pairs and gave one pair to a bunch of guys working on the sewer line on the street.  Only one of them spoke English, but I saw them all taking turns looking through the lenses and they seemed really stoked about the eclipse so that was good.

I also filmed a meh video about drug naming.  Not a super tough topic but it was the eclipse so why not?

:-)

Norwegian word of the day:  Sun  =  Sol

Example:  "The sun is hiding."  "Solen gjemmer seg." 

Almost dead, but not

I just woke up, about 4 am, absolutely unable to breathe, choking on something or another (I strongly suspect, despite having zero evidence of this, that a spider crawled down my gullet, as I once read spiders crawl in peoples' mouths when they are sleeping and spiders are my arch-nemeses).  Obviously I lived.  However, I am sad to report that as I struggled to cough out whatever was blocking my trachea my final thoughts were not of how my death would affect my family, or who would take care of my pets, or whether the department would be able to access my gradebook for the semester, or even the most basic thought that I should get up and summon the police with my handy police-summoning Xfinity home security gizmo.  No, my final thoughts were that I wasn't wearing one of my nicer nighties and I was going to be found dead not being very fashionable.

I feel like I should just turn in my Modern Independent Highly-Educated Woman ID badge and join a reality TV show where I complain about my makeup and whether The Bachelor-of-the-moment likes me better than Amber or Sparkles or whatever other empty-headed goofballs are on those shows.  As a proud member of the ACLU, I completely support their right to be empty-headed goofballs.  But that's supposed to not be me.  It's like I don't even know myself anymore.  I'm seriously disappointed.

Also, I hate spiders.

Today's Early Morning Norwegian Word is "Edderkoppen" which means "The spider" as in "Edderkoppen dreper meg." [The spider is killing me.]

Sigh.

Mom's Advice: Things I think about in the shower 5

(Preface:  I'm noticing that I mostly think about upsetting philosophy and modern society in the shower.  That's pretty weird, I think, because knowing me I'd think when my mind drifts I'd think about kittens or space battles.  I have to think about what this means...  anyway...)

When I was a teenager, my mom sat me down and told me, "When you're making out, don't let the boy get too excited.  If boys get too excited they can't control themselves."  I'm sure she got this wisdom from her own mother in the 1950s when all women pretended to be virgins before marriage.    

I was thinking about this in the shower because I've once again heard this argument that"all men are inherently rapists".

It occurred to me that "boys can't control themselves" and the statement "all men are inherently rapists" are basically the same flawed logic.  If it is a biological failing men have, then who are we to oppose it?  Right?  (I'm playing devil's advocate here.)  It's pretty clear that sexual preference for the vast majority of people is anatomically based.  Would the feminists of the world start an ad campaign saying that homosexual men should control themselves from being homosexual?  Of course not.

If "men are all inherently rapists" then it logically follows that men have a biologic imperative to rape women at will.  Which is clearly bullsh*t.   

I've also read in a lot of places, "Okay, well, not ALL men are rapists..."

...to me that's basically the same as saying, "Okay, well not ALL Jews want to steal your money" or "Okay, well, not ALL African-Americans eat watermelon" and so forth.  The implication is that the speaker is obviously prejudicial against the group in question.  Saying "Okay, well, not ALL men are rapists..." is to me the equivalent of "Okay, well, I PERSONALLY hate and fear men" and I think that's a little sad.

Regardless, you could also look at it the other way.  My mother's assertion is also that she expected that I wouldn't lose control, and therefore would be my boyfriend's keeper.  (So it's also the girl's fault if she can't keep the boy in line.)  I mean, I've lost control in my life a few times.  There have been times where I've done stupendously stupid things while drunk (the few times I've been drunk, another reason I don't drink), or while exhausted, or worse, while in love.  

Women do stupid, horrible things too.  We're all humans.  We all do stupid things and every day we have to wake up and make a conscious effort to do something stupid.   Why is it always about women versus men?  Why not everyone versus stupid?

Anyway, it was a short shower so I'm off to go back to thinking about space battles.