Pants Length

Today I was worried that my pants are too long.  I know jeans are supposed to "break" around your ankle, but I thought it looked weird with work pants.

This "Guide to Pants Length" is informative.  According to the Guide, some bunching/bulging around the break is preferable to having the whole shoe exposed.  I'm still not sure I agree (the "PANTS TOO SHORT FOR FLATS" look cleaner to me than the "PROPER PANT LENGTH FOR FLATS"), but it's nice to know that I'm not clearly in the wrong.

Introverts at school

Do you think introverted kids have a harder time in school without realizing why?

I was just thinking about K's schedule and realizing that, for most of his day, he has no opportunity to be alone. Not that I think this bothers him... but it would bother me.

Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

I wonder if this really works.  For $0.99, it may be worth a try.

4/30/12 update: This actually seems to work.  Here is my sleep cycle from Thursday:

Apparently I woke up twice in the middle of the night, which I don't remember, but I cycled in and out of deep sleep right on schedule.

Compare that with last night's sleep cycle:

I slept terribly last night.  It was one of those nights where you feel like you're lying half awake for hours at a time, and I remember irritably requesting that S "stop blowing air on my face" at least twice (maybe around 3 AM and 4 AM?).

Anyway, I'm pretty impressed that this 99-cent app was so clearly able to log the difference between a good night's sleep and a bad night's sleep.

Katie Roiphe on the childfree

I don't know why I read anything by Katie Roiphe. Everything she writes just pisses me off.

This article about attitudes toward people who choose to be childfree starts off okay, but then she concludes:

The semi-moral imperative to grow up does seem sort of arbitrary and unfair. After all, why should you have to grow up if you don't want to? Why do we feel the need to impose or foist this very particular variety of grown up life on other people?  It seems likely that there is an element of envy in those who have taken on responsible, burdened, parenting lives. . . . [T]hat freedom can be something of a reproach, if we are honest. If we weren't taking this freedom personally, as a sort of criticism of dullness or drabness or routine, a kind of red pencil in the margins of our more mundane stories, we would be a little better, as a culture, at letting the childless (or as Badinter calls them, "the childfree") go in peace.

First of all, implying that people choose not to have kids so they don't have to "grow up," or that you can't be a "grown-up" without kids, is just another way of saying that it's somehow selfish or irresponsible not to have kids.

And then, saying that there's so much societal pressure to have kids because those of with us kids envy those without, doesn't make sense. I'm sure that to some extent, nearly all parents envy the freedom of their peers without kids. But it doesn't follow that because of that envy, parents would pressure others to become parents. There is so much history and context here that she ignores.

Beat-Beat Revelation

Did you know there's a dance battle movie based on Dance Dance Revolution?

The trailer is really... special.

Skipping

Did you know there is a skipping movement?

Doctor's Wife

Did you know there is an entire blog community of doctor's wives? (Check out the blogroll on that site.)

So tell me if this is weird...

I have a coworker in the office next to mine who is a kind-of friend, but not a close friend.  This morning when I came in, I noticed that a bag of nuts I keep in my drawer was out on top of my desk.  The coworker came in and told me he had gotten hungry and eaten some.  At the time, I didn't think much of it, since I always give him snacks when he comes in complaining of hunger anyway.

But then I realized that he must have gone through my drawers looking for a snack when I wasn't here.  Which weirds me out.  I mean, is it just me, or is it crossing a line to go digging through the office drawers of a coworker when he/she's not around?  Am I being oversensitive?

We have had run-ins over boundary issues before.  This guy also had a habit of coming into my office, walking around my desk, and peering over my shoulder at the emails and IM boxes open on my computer screen.  "So, you're emailing X paralegal [whom he doesn't get along with]?  Why?"  "Oh, you're chatting with Y?  What about?"  Eventually I told him he shouldn't do that, that people's conversations/emails are private unless he's invited to look at them.  Maybe we'll have to have a similar conversation about this.

Rocking bed

I want this bed.  And a sleeping porch to put it on.

Black History Month comedy roundtable

Roundtable discussion with a group of black stand-up comedians. (Yes, I know it's not Black History Month anymore.)

Alone, together

This article made me think of that conversation we had about the joys of having one's own space.  Imagine having that AND being happily married.

I wouldn't want an entire home separate from S's, but from our limited experience, having some spaces to ourselves within our home does make things a LOT easier.  Especially if one is fastidious about things like sopping wet bathmats and trash on the floor, and the other is not.

October Baby

Article about the "Christian" propaganda movie October Baby, about a child somehow born perfectly healthy after a "botched abortion" (don't those usually end up with the woman dying??) who, as a teenager, goes looking for her birth mother with the help of the abortion nurse who recalls with specificity what the mother said and did and her motivations for getting an abortion (she wanted an education! and a career!). Her birth mother, of course, is a fancy lawyer with a fancy car who denies ever having her and slams the door in her face, but later tearfully repents.

DISGUSTING.

How can you call yourself a Christian and have so little compassion that you cannot comprehend someone feeling like they are forced to make this difficult decision? Often because of their poverty, their other kids with special needs, domestic abuse in their home, or other circumstances that back them into a corner... not necessarily because they're just too busy and important. You may disagree that they have the right to make the decision, but to portray it as pure selfishness (and shoehorn in judgment about women pursuing careers) is appalling.

Face transplants

Currently reading this book about a burn victim who gets a face transplant (thank you Kindle library and your random selections).  Now morbidly obsessed with face transplants, and wondering what it would be like to wear the face of someone who has died, or have someone else wear mine after my death.

The endless debate about toe-revealing shoes in a law firm

Manolo says, the Manolo has often noted that, strangely, even the most staid lawyer can be driven mad by the glimpse of succulent toe flesh, which is why sandals have never been considered to be the proper business attire.

Housewives for Working Moms

This is an interesting post.

In a nutshell: "So here’s my advice to women who want a big career and a stable family: You need to earn a lot of money to make that happen."

Women and fashion

"Trends are the lingua franca of fashion. To understand them—and to articulate them by wearing them—emits a signal of membership." A Man's Guide to a Woman's Wardrobe.

8 Ways Women Undermine Themselves with Their Words

I do all these things. :(

Meat Spin

My brother and sister made me go to a website called meatspin.com (NSFW!!!!!!!!).  Now I have a thumbnail of it as a "Top Site" on my computer Dashboard, and can't figure out how to get rid of it. :(

Other than that, it has been a ton of fun spending time with the siblings in New York.  Tonight we are getting halal from the famous cart downstairs!

Aging voices

Kids' voices change all the time, because their bodies are changing. And you can usually detect signs of age in the voices of the elderly. What about in between? I wonder if there are any subtle differences that happen as we age, that if we knew what to look for, we could tell a 30-year old's voice from a 60-year old's voice.

Good Friday

Did you know that for lots of people, Good Friday is a holiday? Even the stock exchanges are closed. I had no idea.

Mug Innovation

Every time I unload the dishwasher, I wonder why more mugs aren't like this Ikea one.

The Case for an Older Woman

All the OKTrends pieces make great reading. I recently came across this one called "The Case for an Older Woman" (where they argue that more men should consider dating women in their 30s).

___ do it like ___

This AskMe thread is pretty funny.

A College of Magics

A friend recommended this book, A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer. It's about young girls who are sent to a finishing school and end up illicitly learning magic there, and then it seems like it turns into an adventure/romance story when one of them tries to claim her rightful place on the throne. I don't share many of her literary tastes (she is really into English history) but this looks like it could be a fun read. It's out of print, but I may look for it at the library.

ASMR

Have you heard of this?  I haven't, which is surprising, since it sounds like it's pretty common.  This page gives some more info.

I wouldn't know how to separate this from the normal pleasant "chills down the spine" phenomenon from enjoying certain art/music or being touched on the head or back.  Wait... everyone does get those chills down the spine, right?  Or do I have ASMR?

Open adoption

Roundup of blog posts on open adoption. Common theme: It can be difficult, but it's worth it because otherwise you're not acknowledging something that is likely to be very important to your child. One blogger made the point that if she weren't open about it, her daughter would probably feel she couldn't ask and would resent her parents for it.

Bacon everything!

Bacon Weather.
Bacon Brown.
Bacon Bacon.

My favorite is Bacon Brown because of the huge "Newly found protein" caption underneath.

And ooh, look at this:
Bacon Magic Trousers.