Hey all, this just in from Blogger. If you don't want to view the blog in its traditional format, you can use new DYNAMIC views! You just have to add some slashes and stuff to the last part of the URL, and you can see any blog hosted by Blogger in any of the five new views!
-enna
Thursday, March 31, 2011
double double and a weekend of patriotism!
So, for a first happy piece of business, readership has more than doubled over March! I am pleasantly surprised. I've been working at keeping my posts interesting and relevant for readers, with an occasional dose of silliness (see below post!). I want to thank you all for continuing to put up with my irregular schedule. :)
Anyway, last weekend was INSANE. My school choir was in rehearsal 12-8pm last Saturday for a concert we did on Sunday. The entire weekend was sucked into the concert. However, this concert, the American Celebration, touched many veterans and was a way to say "Thank you". Plus, I got to perform with the Army band! That was COOL to an extreme (in an extremely musical-geeky way)!!
That is all I have for now. I am currently working on the post on birth control, and I shall post it when it is done.
-enna
Anyway, last weekend was INSANE. My school choir was in rehearsal 12-8pm last Saturday for a concert we did on Sunday. The entire weekend was sucked into the concert. However, this concert, the American Celebration, touched many veterans and was a way to say "Thank you". Plus, I got to perform with the Army band! That was COOL to an extreme (in an extremely musical-geeky way)!!
That is all I have for now. I am currently working on the post on birth control, and I shall post it when it is done.
-enna
Friday, March 25, 2011
is your computer screen dirty?
Have no fear, an adorable puppy is here! Just play this video and expand it so it covers the whole screen, and watch the little pug clean your screen off to music that (though I normally would shun it) is absolutely adorable and fits perfectly! Enjoy ^_^
-enna
-enna
an informative post
It appears that I have a post ahead of me detailing the effects of hormonal contraceptives on women. So that you know, this will include the Pill, vaginal rings, shots, and patches. (I might not be covering vaginal rings, seeing as I'm not really sure what they ARE. I'll determine that and whether to include them while I am researching.)
Since the nature of this post is to present facts - and a lot of them - I wish to say two things. One, I will do my darndest to only quote the drug information (you know, that stuff that comes with medicine that hardly anyone ever reads that talks about the side effects and what the medicine is and does and stuff like that) and medical studies and journals. No Wikipedia! I will only use what is available medically for birth control. Two, this post will not be posted for a couple weeks. It will probably be the end of the first week of April or the beginning of the second before I complete my research and write the post. I'm sorry, but I have several assignments that will be coming due in the next couple weeks as well as lots of scholarship deadlines, so I will not be able to immediately complete this project.
Keep checking back though. I might get it done early. Who knows? After all, I am a college student! ;)
-enna
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
new meaning of CIA
This is a good video. It's got some humor in it - hopefully my Protestant readers won't mind that it's Catholic humor - and does a good job of presenting facts of the faith in a way that is interesting. Go ahead - look at the Catholic Integration Agency.
-enna
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti
Yep. Today we get to talk about FOOD! Yay! We all like food, right? Of course that's right! It's also a pretty basic fact that men are attracted to women and women are attracted to men. (I'm ignoring the homosexual revolution for the minute because that is wholly and entirely unrelated to this particular post.) But hey - guess what? I have a shocking statement for you.
...Wait for it...
...Wait for it...
MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.
I mean, who woulda thunk, right? We all have the same number of chromosomes; the same organs for respiratory, circulation, blood filtering, digesting food; the same type of brain; the same number of limbs (ARMS AND LEGS PEOPLE, ARMS AND LEGS...no perversion of that statement allowed :P) ; the same number of heads (1)...the list could keep going.
Well...actually, not really. As it was, it took me about ten minutes to come up with that short list. Because men and women are VERY different. They're as different as...well, as waffles and spaghetti. Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti. Hence the title of the post - and of the book of the same name. I have never read the book, but I intend to - as soon as I have time. (HAH!)
So why are men like waffles and women like spaghetti? To answer this, I have another question: how do guys and gals think? Guys are focused. They direct their energies towards one thing and have a very hard time multitasking. It's like they have little compartments in their brain. They have to fill each one with syrup. One at a time, mind you. And it must be perfectly filled.
Women do NOT compartmentalize their brains. Yes, we might separate "school" from "work" from "kids" from "wedding", and have our dates pretty well figured out, but we're much more like a plate of spaghetti. We are all over the place. You can have several noodles overlapping and intertwining with each other. You can't follow one noodle when it's in a pile of spaghetti. That noodle leads to another noodle, which leads to another, which leads....and on and on and on.
Which leads me to what kinda prompted this post. I was having a conversation with my boyfriend - who comes from a more conservative background than I do - about this little issue. It's called "modesty". Yes, I dress modestly - no low-cut shirts, no cleavage hanging out, no short skirts, no short shorts, no bikinis, no skin-tight clothing, etc. The women in his family only wear skirts and no jewelry (other than wedding band). A little bit more radical than my outlook, but that's ok.
We were discussing a view held by some EXTREME conservatives (no, I'm actually not an extreme conservative, just a liberal extreme conservative). No sleeves that rise higher than the wrists. On ANYONE. Guys or girls. Nor are guys allowed to wear shorts, and women must wear skirts at least to their ankles. On the women, I can somewhat understand this view. Men are visually motivated, and too much skin can be a trigger for lust. I do think this is a little overboard, but I can understand it.
I do not understand the men being forced to follow this as well. Heads up for all you guys - for the most part, women don't care! Sure, lots of gals want their guy buff and tan, complete with six pack, but quite frankly, skin on a guy doesn't set women off. We are not nearly as likely to be visually stimulated in that particular way. I'm not saying it's not possible, but quite frankly, wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts is NOT going to cause an issue.
If only people would realize that men are like waffles, but women are like spaghetti...
-enna
...Wait for it...
...Wait for it...
MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.
I mean, who woulda thunk, right? We all have the same number of chromosomes; the same organs for respiratory, circulation, blood filtering, digesting food; the same type of brain; the same number of limbs (ARMS AND LEGS PEOPLE, ARMS AND LEGS...no perversion of that statement allowed :P) ; the same number of heads (1)...the list could keep going.
Well...actually, not really. As it was, it took me about ten minutes to come up with that short list. Because men and women are VERY different. They're as different as...well, as waffles and spaghetti. Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti. Hence the title of the post - and of the book of the same name. I have never read the book, but I intend to - as soon as I have time. (HAH!)
So why are men like waffles and women like spaghetti? To answer this, I have another question: how do guys and gals think? Guys are focused. They direct their energies towards one thing and have a very hard time multitasking. It's like they have little compartments in their brain. They have to fill each one with syrup. One at a time, mind you. And it must be perfectly filled.
Women do NOT compartmentalize their brains. Yes, we might separate "school" from "work" from "kids" from "wedding", and have our dates pretty well figured out, but we're much more like a plate of spaghetti. We are all over the place. You can have several noodles overlapping and intertwining with each other. You can't follow one noodle when it's in a pile of spaghetti. That noodle leads to another noodle, which leads to another, which leads....and on and on and on.
Which leads me to what kinda prompted this post. I was having a conversation with my boyfriend - who comes from a more conservative background than I do - about this little issue. It's called "modesty". Yes, I dress modestly - no low-cut shirts, no cleavage hanging out, no short skirts, no short shorts, no bikinis, no skin-tight clothing, etc. The women in his family only wear skirts and no jewelry (other than wedding band). A little bit more radical than my outlook, but that's ok.
We were discussing a view held by some EXTREME conservatives (no, I'm actually not an extreme conservative, just a liberal extreme conservative). No sleeves that rise higher than the wrists. On ANYONE. Guys or girls. Nor are guys allowed to wear shorts, and women must wear skirts at least to their ankles. On the women, I can somewhat understand this view. Men are visually motivated, and too much skin can be a trigger for lust. I do think this is a little overboard, but I can understand it.
I do not understand the men being forced to follow this as well. Heads up for all you guys - for the most part, women don't care! Sure, lots of gals want their guy buff and tan, complete with six pack, but quite frankly, skin on a guy doesn't set women off. We are not nearly as likely to be visually stimulated in that particular way. I'm not saying it's not possible, but quite frankly, wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts is NOT going to cause an issue.
If only people would realize that men are like waffles, but women are like spaghetti...
-enna
Thursday, March 17, 2011
on petiteness
So to make this post make sense, I need to explain something to you all.
I. Am. Short.
I stand 5 feet 3 inches tall on a GOOD day. I weigh only 115-120 pounds and have a waist 23 inches around. I'm TINY. As such, I get lots of silly comments.
When I was at work today, one of my co-workers and friends from grade school whom I hadn't seen since August (or thereabouts I think) commented, "Oh wow, I'd forgotten how TINY you are!"
I held out in my parents' veterinary clinic yesterday. I did a lot of cleaning. At one point, I had to help hold a puppy on this table. This table comes to the lower part of my ribcage. This puppy was a 3 1/2 month old Saint Bernard. I have to wrap one arm around this puppy's neck and the other around his stomach. I was on my tiptoes and could barely reach. It was annoying.
The puppy, however, was absolutely adorable.
I was teaching an arthritis class at work one day, and I had a lady inform me that kids would do away with my hourglass figure. I find it amusing that people think I am unaware of what pregnancy does to a woman's body. I watched Mom pregnant with my four younger sisters, as well as most of my friends' moms when THEY were pregnant.
YES, I KNOW MY STOMACH IS GOING TO GET BIGGER WHEN I AM PREGNANT.
(This, however, is a physical impossibility at the moment. And shall remain one for a while. Not because of birth control, either.)
My coworker and I were reminiscing about grade school. (This is the same coworker who'd forgotten that no, I'm not very big.) As she pointed out, in fifth grade, I was one of the tallest girls. If I remember correctly, only four or five were taller than I was - not counting this coworker. In fifth grade, I was 5 feet, 1 inch tall, and I think I weighed about 100 pounds. And I was as tall as or taller than most of the boys in my grade, too.
However, I only grew another two inches and gained another 20 pounds. (I was SKINNY and straight as a stick before puberty got the better of me.) Now, 14 year olds who used to barely come to my waist way-back-when are now six to eight inches taller than I am, and I have to crane my head upwards to see their faces. Time has its way of reversing the tables.
I'm not really into shopping. I know that this is a strange abnormality in a female, particularly in my age range. However, allow me to make all things clear to you with one simple statement: I am short. I just had to buy two new pairs of jeans. One pair are regular length, the other are short. The regulars are about four inches too long. The shorts...are about one inch too long.
Part of the problem is not only my tininess in height, but also in waist size. I mentioned that I have a 23 inch waist...well, apparently those who make jeans don't count on women having such a severe hourglass figure. PARTICULARLY women as short as I am. Gaping waistbands are uncomfortable...so that adds to it.
I've complained about being short and shared some strange stuff from my past. However, one thing shall be quite enough for me. It makes all of the shortness and tininess hilarities that take place at my expense or because of something I do worthwhile.
Phinwe and I fit well with our heights. :)
-enna
Photo credit: Jeffrey Jones Photography, 2010
P.S. Don't forget to vote! Voting ends next Thursday!
I. Am. Short.
I stand 5 feet 3 inches tall on a GOOD day. I weigh only 115-120 pounds and have a waist 23 inches around. I'm TINY. As such, I get lots of silly comments.
~~
When I was at work today, one of my co-workers and friends from grade school whom I hadn't seen since August (or thereabouts I think) commented, "Oh wow, I'd forgotten how TINY you are!"
~~
I held out in my parents' veterinary clinic yesterday. I did a lot of cleaning. At one point, I had to help hold a puppy on this table. This table comes to the lower part of my ribcage. This puppy was a 3 1/2 month old Saint Bernard. I have to wrap one arm around this puppy's neck and the other around his stomach. I was on my tiptoes and could barely reach. It was annoying.
The puppy, however, was absolutely adorable.
~~
I was teaching an arthritis class at work one day, and I had a lady inform me that kids would do away with my hourglass figure. I find it amusing that people think I am unaware of what pregnancy does to a woman's body. I watched Mom pregnant with my four younger sisters, as well as most of my friends' moms when THEY were pregnant.
YES, I KNOW MY STOMACH IS GOING TO GET BIGGER WHEN I AM PREGNANT.
(This, however, is a physical impossibility at the moment. And shall remain one for a while. Not because of birth control, either.)
~~
My coworker and I were reminiscing about grade school. (This is the same coworker who'd forgotten that no, I'm not very big.) As she pointed out, in fifth grade, I was one of the tallest girls. If I remember correctly, only four or five were taller than I was - not counting this coworker. In fifth grade, I was 5 feet, 1 inch tall, and I think I weighed about 100 pounds. And I was as tall as or taller than most of the boys in my grade, too.
However, I only grew another two inches and gained another 20 pounds. (I was SKINNY and straight as a stick before puberty got the better of me.) Now, 14 year olds who used to barely come to my waist way-back-when are now six to eight inches taller than I am, and I have to crane my head upwards to see their faces. Time has its way of reversing the tables.
~~
I'm not really into shopping. I know that this is a strange abnormality in a female, particularly in my age range. However, allow me to make all things clear to you with one simple statement: I am short. I just had to buy two new pairs of jeans. One pair are regular length, the other are short. The regulars are about four inches too long. The shorts...are about one inch too long.
Part of the problem is not only my tininess in height, but also in waist size. I mentioned that I have a 23 inch waist...well, apparently those who make jeans don't count on women having such a severe hourglass figure. PARTICULARLY women as short as I am. Gaping waistbands are uncomfortable...so that adds to it.
~~
I've complained about being short and shared some strange stuff from my past. However, one thing shall be quite enough for me. It makes all of the shortness and tininess hilarities that take place at my expense or because of something I do worthwhile.Phinwe and I fit well with our heights. :)
-enna
Photo credit: Jeffrey Jones Photography, 2010
P.S. Don't forget to vote! Voting ends next Thursday!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
ask the readers!
I'm choosing to ask YOU, my readers, if you would like me to cover a certain topic. It is most definitely a hot topic in today's society.
Should I write a researched, probably somewhat lengthy, documented post on the birth control pill and its effects on women - good and bad? I certainly have my position, but this will ONLY be on the PHYSICAL health and LITERAL properties of the Pill. Would you, my readers - particularly my lady readers - like me to research this? The doctors don't really tell us much, and it can be very confusing where to begin. Guys, do you want to know what the effects of pressuring your girlfriend to use the Pill will be on her health?
It's YOUR turn to decide. Speak up! Make yourself heard! The poll is on the left, above the post archive and most popular posts.
Cast your votes now! You can cast your votes for two weeks. Then shall the decision made by the readers be implemented. If you want to explain your reasoning, do so in the comments of this post.
On your mark...get set...GO!
-enna
Should I write a researched, probably somewhat lengthy, documented post on the birth control pill and its effects on women - good and bad? I certainly have my position, but this will ONLY be on the PHYSICAL health and LITERAL properties of the Pill. Would you, my readers - particularly my lady readers - like me to research this? The doctors don't really tell us much, and it can be very confusing where to begin. Guys, do you want to know what the effects of pressuring your girlfriend to use the Pill will be on her health?
It's YOUR turn to decide. Speak up! Make yourself heard! The poll is on the left, above the post archive and most popular posts.
Cast your votes now! You can cast your votes for two weeks. Then shall the decision made by the readers be implemented. If you want to explain your reasoning, do so in the comments of this post.
On your mark...get set...GO!
-enna
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
a season has begun
A season of sacrifice and preparation. Any guessers? If you guessed "Lent", you'd be right. DING DING DING! We have our winner! I, like other Catholics and many other people from other denominations, will be giving up some things and promising to do others. Here's my list. Cheers. :)~ I'm going to make a point to be better about posting. At least one a week. No excuses beyond running a fever over 100 for the entire week. Or puking my guts out the entire week. You get the idea. This is to a) give me a level of accountability, and b) get me back in the groove. Christmas break threw me off schedule.
~ No sweets! This is something that I've done now for...I think four years. It's really a very good sacrifice, because I LOVE chocolate.
~ No soda either. Since I've started school, I drink soda more often than I used to. It's not a ridiculous amount, but all the same, I'll do without it. I don't need carbonation; now is the time to show it!
~ Also eating-related, I'm going to make a concentrated effort to eat better. I don't eat enough nor with enough frequency - normally I'll have something around 9:30 AM and then nothing until dinner, which is typically at 6:00 PM. However, sometimes I don't get home till 7:15 or 7:30. I really need to eat a little bit more often.
~Exercise. I'm going to walk more, and I'm going to try to swim at least every other week. Based on my old shoulder problems, and some recurring issues with them, it isn't the best idea for me to swim a lot. However, a little bit will do me good and not cause issues. (I think.)
~Spiritual discipline. I admit that while most of the time my prayer life is middlingly ok, I have no structure. Ever. I don't say, "I'll read the Bible at least once a week" or "I'm going to pray a Rosary every day" or anything like that. It's normally spontaneous little prayers. Nothing wrong with that, but that makes it easy to accidentally skip a day. I have a little book of Lenten reflections that I'm going to use each day as a start to really making time for God each day - that doesn't count little quick 15 second prayers.
~ No meat on Fridays. Guess what. I ALREADY DO THIS. However, this is the only time of year that the Catholic Church states that individuals over the age of 14 who do not have a medical condition preventing them from following this are obliged to abstain from meat on Fridays - the day of Christ's death - with no exceptions to the rule. (During the rest of the year, if there is absolutely no other option, abstinence of meat may be replaced by a SUITABLE sacrifice. For more information on abstinence, see this article.)
~ Fasting. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (Friday before Easter) are declared days of fasting by the Church. Individuals 18 years of age through 59 years of age are required to fast. Basically, this means only one SMALL "regular" meal a day, and two smaller meals that, if the amount of food is added together, do not total the amount of food eaten at the regular meal. More information on requirements of fasting and medical conditions exempt can be found here.
Good luck with YOUR Lenten resolutions!
-enna
Monday, March 7, 2011
differences in definitions
It all seems to come down to definitions, doesn't it? When talking about love, even when using the same words, people can be saying totally different things - because they attach different definitions to the same words. And for many people, "love" is synonymous with "lust". ("Synonymous", for those who have a hard time understanding words with more than three syllables, means that the words mean the same thing.) But is love really the same thing?
I think not. Love is NOT lustful. Lust means that you see a person, and think, "Oh, I want that person's body. I want to have them pleasure me." It objectifies the person. Women particularly are victimized by this. Look at fashion today, for heaven's sake! We women are told to wear skin-tight shirts that have collars that go practically down to our navel, skirts that barely cover what is necessary - or cover the bottom part of the leg and have holes in the upper (I actually saw a skirt like that the other day), leggings that show every curve of the leg to the world...and so on and so forth. Women undervalue themselves because, according to society, what's in our heads doesn't matter. It's what is on our heads and the rest of our bodies.
I want to make something very clear to all you men out there. I AM NOT AN OBJECT! I am a person just like you, with hopes, fears, and dreams of my own. I am not a toy for you to use for your own pleasure. If you want a perfect girl or something to lust after, stop using me. Go get a Barbie.
Sorry, I needed to get that out. Anyway, lust is an evil thing. It turns people into nothing more than an object for another's pleasure, and I don't care what you believe, people are more than that. I'm suggesting something other than lust. I suggest desire.
Desire doesn't objectify the person. Desire wants to pleasure the other. Desire doesn't care about himself or herself, desire wants the other person to be happy. Desire also knows that there are times that it is not acceptable to act upon the desire, that there are times to wait. Desire is not lust. They are as far apart in meaning as the east is from the west. Many people mistake them for one another, and use them interchangeably.
However, I choose to use the words differently. Anyone would say there is a difference in the intent - I choose to use these words to fit with it.
So, don't tell me lust is good. Don't even THINK lust is good. DESIRE is good. Desire celebrates humanity, lust objectifies it. Get your definitions straight. ;)
-enna
P.S. This IS my Valentine's post. It's on an element of "love" that people like to mislabel. Or just outright misinterpret what love is. So for Valentine's this year, I'm setting the record straight.
However, I choose to use the words differently. Anyone would say there is a difference in the intent - I choose to use these words to fit with it.
So, don't tell me lust is good. Don't even THINK lust is good. DESIRE is good. Desire celebrates humanity, lust objectifies it. Get your definitions straight. ;)
-enna
P.S. This IS my Valentine's post. It's on an element of "love" that people like to mislabel. Or just outright misinterpret what love is. So for Valentine's this year, I'm setting the record straight.
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