Enemy of Entropy

About models and the effects of the media on body image in their populations, at least. Following Spain’s move last year that banned ultra-thin models from catwalks, France is acting. The “French parliament’s lower house adopted a groundbreaking bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone — including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites — to publicly incite extreme thinness.”

British researchers are also recommending action. “With constant images of stick-thin, size-zero models, tiny-waisted pop princesses and actresses is putting young girls’ health at risk and fueling the rise in eating disorders, according to Professor Janet Treasure of the Eating Disorders Research Unit at Kings College London.”

It’s a relief to know that, somewhere in the world, people are paying attention to this stuff. It’s tiresome to hear the constant folderol about the “obesity epidemic” here in the U.S., with almost no balancing coverage.

Kate Harding created this very cool slide show to show just how absurd it is to rely on body mass index to determine whether or not people are at a healthy weight.

BTW - I did not “miss” blogging yesterday. February 29 was the only “day of rest” for Blog365, so I took it It felt odd, though!

I got through NaBloPoMo, as ridiculous as it was to commit to posting at least once a day for a month. So of course that small success has led me, in a moment of more-than-usual-lunacy, to sign up for Blog365 (otherwise known as “Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire”).

The purpose is fairly clear: to post at least once every day of 2008. February 29 is a “rest day.” Posts may be written on any site, rather than sticking to just one blog, so I’ll try to spread them around on mine/ours. If I can’t get something on the actual site on a particular day due to net connection issues or whatever, I have to write (yes, write! like, cuneiform or something!) a journal entry and transfer it to a blog as that day’s entry.

It would be far simpler to have a system of some sort. Maybe I’ll create a rotation:

• Fibrant Living - health, living with a disability, podcasts
• Academy Caritas - homeschooling, education, college
• House Fireheart - polyamory, particularly my and Sam’s approach to it
• Heartsong Handicrafts - home of my original needlework patterns, and soon to be home for the rest of my stitching information
• Cyberstalked! - internet safety and privacy issues
• Cynthia Armistead - my professional portfolio, where I put the geeky stuff
• Enemy of Entropy - here, of course, where I put general stuff, book reviews, and the like.

Hopefully there will be new podcasts up soon. There will definitely be more music, as we have that lovely concert piano we received via freecycle all repaired and put together. It’s beautiful and sounds great! Not at all bad for one drive to pick it up and less than $200 in repair fees! (Sam wanted to just take it to the nearest authorized repair center rather than doing it ourselves.)

2007 wasn’t a stellar year, but neither was it terrible. Sam has a steady, secure job that he enjoys, in an organization that’s allowing him to advance. , Katie had a lot of health problems, but I’m hoping that we’re on the right path to resolving them. Shelley passed away a little shy of her 18th birthday, but since we’d been told in 1999 that she only had a year (at most) left, we felt that we’d gotten an “extra” 8 years with her anyway. Kioshi has grown into a nice companion, too.

We really kept to ourselves a lot through the past two years. When you’ve been betrayed and hurt as deeply as we were by our former housemate’s sudden craziness in 2006, there’s a lot of healing to be done. I don’t know if I’ll ever approach Thanksgiving without trepidation again, but we had a good one anyway. The stress did contribute to the deterioration of my health, and that does make it harder to get out. We’re working on it, though. We certainly learned who our true friends were, and we’ll never forget that.

So on to 2008, which we hope to be full of more time with friends, better health, much more music, Katie spent last night and almost all day today with friends from the school she was attending as well as her new beau. Sam and I spent the day gaming, upgrading some web sites, eating good food and watching movies. If it’s true that whatever you do on January 1 indicates how your year will go, we should be just fine.

From Planned Parenthood of Georgia:

Free EC! December 6, 2006!

We’re celebrating increased access to emergency contraception (EC)!

EC can safely and effectively prevent pregnancy if started within five days of unprotected sex. Everyone, regardless of age, can get EC at Planned Parenthood - and now, for people 18 and older, EC is available over the counter. Stop by one of our five Georgia health centers on December 6, 2006, and receive FREE EC (one per person) to keep at home - just in case.

Planned Parenthood of Georgia, Inc.
Atlanta ~ Lilburn ~ Marietta ~ Augusta ~ Savannah

1-800-230-PLAN

————————————————–

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://www.ppaction.org/join-forward.html?domain=ppga&r=x11er3n1SSQw

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
Planned Parenthood of Georgia Action Center at:

http://www.ppaction.org/ppga/join.html?r=x11er3n1SSQwE

I just read about it at Sex in the Public Square. I haven’t thought about it before, but what she says makes sense. If you’re a sexually active adult who could technically conceive, but you don’t want to have a child right now, it’s a good thing to keep on hand.

I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences in buying it OTC, if you do so. It isn’t an issue for us, so we don’t have a reason to buy any.