Kingdom of Ice...

In honor of Belledame.



I definitely know the feeling.

Now, let me start on the assignment that I forgot was due tomorrow, what with all the freaking out about not having a job.

Housekeeping

Welcome to the blogroll to Evil Mommy.

Best blogname ever.

Did I mention I'm broke?

I just applied for unemployment. Gah.

Anyway, did I mention that there are many cool tee-shirts in these Cafepress shops?

The Vikingfish Shop.

The Philosopher's Union Shop.

The Taos Aelthing Shop.

If I can sell like three or four more shirts, I might be able to pay my phone bill.

Baby Blogging

Why yes, I am tearing up your bookshelf!

I tell you, you've never lived until you've seen your 10 month old chewing on Civilization and Its Discontents.

But does it affect national security?

A toxic algal bloom caused by unusually warm water off the coast of California is killing marine life.

LOS ANGELES - Rescuers worked Saturday to save more dead and dying dolphins and sea lions that have washed up on Southern California beaches, believed poisoned by a naturally occurring toxic acid.

A bloom of ocean algae that produces domoic acid may be responsible for killing or sickening dozens of the sea mammals, including birds, in recent weeks, environmentalists said.

...In the past week, 40 birds have been taken to the International Bird Rescue Center in San Pedro with symptoms of domoic acid poisoning, which attacks the brain and can cause seizures.

In previous seasons, the center might see seven birds a week, director Jay Holcomb said.

The algae population goes through an annual increase as ocean waters warm, but biologists say this year's bloom is especially early and extensive.

This isn't bad enough to make us care about global warming? No, we need national security to be affected.

NEW YORK - Growing concern surrounds a new national security threat, an insidious trend that could foster terrorism worldwide and draw our armed forces into messy regional conflicts in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

No, it isn't nuclear proliferation. Nor is it a new brand of religious fundamentalism.

It's global warming.

Not that it's not true, but one would hope all the other reasons to combat global warming would suffice. But know, it has to be something that makes the terrorists come get us before we pay any attention.

Friday Random Ten

Because it's better than cat blogging.

1. 4 Non Blondes - Drifting
2. Shonen Knife - ESP
3. Tom Waits - Jesus Gonna Be Here
4. The Ramones - Beat on the Brat
5. Chris Murrah - All-Nite Dinah
6. Ethyl Meatplow - Devil’s Johnson
7. White Stripes - Astro
8. T. Rex - Cosmic Dancer
9. Squirrel Nut Zippers - Ghost of Steven Foster
10. Violet Femmes - Confessions

Wow.

So, back in the day, two call centers ago, I used to work with this nice guy named Adil. He was super polite, smart, funny, good at his job, etc. I didn't know him well. I'd kind of assumed he was Jamaican from his love of reggae.

One day Adil didn't show up for work. Rumor had it that one of the asshole supervisors (well, they were all assholes at *that* call center) had noticed a minor screwup in his paperwork and reported him to immigration. Apparently the asshole supervisor had thought it hilarious.

Well, it's years later and I'm idly browsing some blogs, and on Duke City Fix I find that Adil is actually Sudanese, and that he is living in America with his wife and child in order to escape genocide and war, and that he has spent nearly a year *in fucking jail* for the minor screwup in his paperwork.

But most importantly, he is now freed.

Good luck, Adil. I hope you get to stay with your wife and son.

Now that I have the time on my hands...

...thank you very much New Mexico Communications, former employer, here's an actual post for you.

Over at Feministe Zuzu linked to an article about some British scientists working to create an infant formula that might decrease the possibility of obesity later in life. The idea is to add a hormone called leptin to formula, which is already present in breastmilk. Now I'll all for making formula more like breastmilk, and I'm all for the improvements to our lives that could be made through science.

But the idea that we should fight obesity with baby formula is beyond ridiculous. As Zuzu points out the fat-shaming is evident, but this also demonstrates the mother-shaming that's out of control in our culture. As Zuzu points out, if it's so important to fight obesity, and the leptin in breastmilk is supposed to help, why not make it easier to breastfeed? Well, because no one makes a profit on breastfeeding.

And as a later commenter mentions:

Oh, and I did breastfeed my two boys but I can’t imagine that giving them one or even two years of breastmilk (or of super-duper-fat-fighting-formula) is going to protect them from obesity as they wash down their spider man fruit snacks with their spider man faux-juice boxes….

If fighting childhood obesity is *so* important, why not regulate the hell out of those "food" companies that market to children? Or maybe fund healthy school lunch programs that don't involve any participation from Coke or Pepsi? Oh, because people make a profit off of that corporate-logo emblazoned crap.

It seems the magic anti-fat formula somehow manages to combine the anxieties of our consumerist culture on the one hand and the holier-than-thou, ubernatural parents on the other. If something impure crosses the baby's lips, poor thing will be surely doomed to a life of obesity and illness -- so I better solve this problem by purchasing a new product!

I don't understand how something a person eats for a year of their lives is supposed to protect them from obesity for a lifetime. I've not seen compelling data that demonstrated, while controlling for other factors, that whether you nurse or give formula makes that huge of a difference in the life of your baby. It seems unlikely that breastfeeding (or the magic fat-repelling formula) will create a magical forcefield that will keep diabetes at bay when it's often literally impossible to find healthy, affordable food. Is it because mothers have less influence over what adults or even teens eat? Is it because our society loves to make mothers so crazy over things they "need" to give their babies? In my opnion, yes.

Dr. Spock, take me away!

**added** Oh, and Zuzu mentioned that she didn't want her thread to devolve into a war over whether or not formula feeding is inherently inferior to breastfeeding. I, however, have no such qualms. So feel free.

Crap.

So I get a call today from my employer that I've been laid off, effective immediately. Seems as though since losing a major account (their fault, not mine) they can't justify keeping me, a part-time employee.

Fuck.

Couldn't they at least have waited until *after* finals???

Now I'm trying to do the mental calculations as to what bills absolutely do and do not need to get paid. And maybe how quickly I can get foodstamps. Or unemployment.

Anyone looking to hire a heavily jaded Anthropology student in the Albuquerque area?

For anything?

**UPDATED** Don't let me stop you from buying a Viking Fish item from the CafePress link in the sidebar!

Nice.

So I get this email today, as I'm about to head off to class and give a presentation I've been quite nervous about.

Special UNM Alert - April 19, 2007

UNM police are asking everyone on campus to be especially vigilant.
They
are investigating unspecified threats that have been made in the past
hour. There have also been threatening notes found at several schools
in
New Mexico today. Please report suspicious activity to UNM police at
277-2241.

*************************

This list is used for emergency alerts for the UNM Albuquerque campus.

*************************

Great. As if the idea of speaking in front of a class of undergrads hasn't got me nervous enough. Maybe this is just a test of their warning system?

**UPDATE**
Yeah, everything's fine.

Somebody in an Anthro 150 class went to the bathroom in the middle of a lecture, and came back saying they found this note with a threat on it.

My guess is, somebody had a test that day.

And I didn't die of stage fright either, the presentation went well.

And the Post-Modernist Circle of Irony is Complete...

Chocolate Jesus?

No, Chocolate Jesus.

snerk.