yannaboo

With the recent upheaval in social media stuffs (ew, Twitter) I've heard from multiple sources that long-form blogging is making a comeback! So as I said to Akiva, let's do it like we did back in 2002. And we have the archives to prove it!

Still in Oregon. Oregon is weird. I was comparing notes with a colleague in my field who lives in Florida, in a city and near a University. So it's a red and wacky state, though he lives in a blue and progressive area. Here, I live in the opposite - a historically fairly blue and progressive state, but I live in a red and wacky area. We had a gun control ballot initiative that apparently passed (whoa!) and another to remove the inclusion of slavery as a potential punishment for crimes. In the latter, sure it passed but by like 55%, which means some people...don't want to change the language? Because...why exactly? Oh yeah and psilocibin is decriminalized state wide, yet our city (and all cities in our county) just voted to prohibit any businesses for two years. Also, though state-wide our long-term D senator was re-elected in a landslide, locally he did not carry the county. Stuff's just weird.

Someday maybe I'll have to get into local committees, at least, to make sure this town runs. Not now, though, the kiddos are too dang little and I'm too busy for that.

Recently, a friend with a job interview asked me if I had spent much time in Columbus. The first thing that came to mind was summer camp trips to the science museum, and then a family trip when my brother was looking at colleges in like 1991. Thinking last century seemed like a long time ago, I racked my brain for other times in Columbus, and remembered when we went to visit Kitty's house in college.

We had fun at their party - there was drinking and games and a lot of laughter. My actions later on were wanting, though...it's only in retrospect that I realize how horribly I acted. It has been like 13 years, so I'm sure it's not on anyone's minds too terribly often, but even so I'm sorry for those who were hurt, inconvenienced, or otherwise negatively affected by my actions. Reading my LJ archives in retrospect sheds an interesting light on who I was, who I have become since then, and who I am.

A little bag of chocolate coins, and quite delicious. I'm not sure exactly why gelt is a Hanukkah tradition - what does it have to do with oil? Or the victory of the few over the numerous and mighty? Nevertheless, a tiny plastic sack of parve Belgian chocolate is pretty darn satisfying. It's somewhat interesting how religious observance has been change by culture - why do we give presents? Latkes and sufganiot actually make sense, as they use oil and therefore celebrate the miracle of oil.

It's funny how these things seems to occur to me more now that I'm in a place where fewer and fewer people are Jewish. Growing up in a big city with a large Jewish population, it didn't really occur to me that people wouldn't know what that meant. Even being asked if I was "Hebrew" in 6th grade didn't really drive the point home. We do have a small but vibrant population on campus, enough to eat a ton of latkes and sing silly hanukkah songs. Strangely enough, it seems a significant proportion of the gay students on campus are Jewish. Maybe it comes from a lifetime of being "different" in at least one major way, such that the students are unafraid of being different in others. If so, I think that's kind of awesome - being a college professor, I'd like to think I have a chance to promote acceptance, or at least tolerance, of a wide variety of viewpoints and lifestyles.

So people think I'm weird for watching Degrassi, but sometimes it's good and dramatic and interesting. However I'm very disappointed by a recent story arc, given how many young teenagers watch this show.

So girl and boy are dating for a while, after boy crushed on girl for years, girl lost her virginity to delinquent, boy cheated on girl with psycho who came back only to get nearly killed by texting and walking (all this is par for the course on Degrassi), boy and girl finally get back together and talk about having sex. Of course in a "My parents are away let's do it tonight because we love each other, not that we've ever talked about this before". Oh, and girl just started taking the pill.

Since they are still high school students, they do other things, and the girl has been busy researching a breathalyzer for breast cancer detection. Some alum at MIT comes to meet her, and offers her a full scholarship to MIT if she can graduate a year early. Cause, you know, this is how it works. Though only 5 days have passed since the sex, girl is concerned she is pregnant because she missed two pills in a week (despite her cell phone alarm that reminds her to take it) she's moody and feels sick (and no, getting a life-changing scholarship you have to choose to accept or not NEVER does that). SO:
- she buys a pregnancy test and sneaks home to take it, only to get caught by her mother
- blames roommate for the pregnancy test
- realizes test doesn't work until 10 days post-conception, so makes clinic appointment
- tells boyfriend she might be pregnant
- boyfriend TELLS HIS PARENTS
- boyfriend decides she should have the kid and defer MIT for a year, then they all move to MIT
- asks MIT person about deferring, it's not a possibility. Oh noes!
- decides on her own that she won't have the baby, really wants MIT
- tells boyfriend, pissing him off, he leaves in a huff
- gets lab results from the clinic, oh look not pregnant!
- tells boyfriend she almost jeopardized her future having sex with him, so she won't do it again.

Yes, teen girls, please freak out about possibly being pregnant way too soon, and worry the heck out of other people while you're at it. I'm all for responsibility and realizing the consequences of sex, but this is all kinda crazy.

Oh yeah, and she's going to MIT so she can work to cure cancer!

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