Who would you want to cuddle with or look like?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Parenting, Size Acceptance
It’s a no-brainer for me! I’d rather be or hug the gal on the left any day!
Somehow, though, the Make Me a Supermodel judges found the waif on the right more worthy of praise than Jen Hunter, the hot babe on the left who actually won, thanks to input from fans.
The skinny gal, Marianne Berglund, looks like a kid playing dress-up to me. An underfed, sick, awkward kid who hasn’t quite hit puberty. Putting her next to Ms. Hunter is just cruel.
Which one would I rather have my daughter emulate? That’s not hard, either. If I ever see Katie looking like Ms. Berglund, she will be on the way to the hospital in a trice.
Thanks for the link, Alice_Bunnie!
Tags: Jen Hunter, Marianne Berglund
Fat, feminist lesbian from Arkansas tops British magazine’s “cool list”
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Music, Size Acceptance
Beth Ditto’s music (the group’s name is Gossip) isn’t quite my thing, but I’m tickled by the fact that she’s totally unapologetic by who she is.
I feel some kinship with her about having a big voice, too. Some of us are just blessed with them. Yes, we can (and some of us have!) learn good technique so we aren’t always loud—but we’ll always have big voices.
Tags: Arkansas, Beth Ditto
Sexy Babes!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Sex, Size Acceptance
The very first person I thought of on viewing skinnyvideo is She’s Precious. But all my luscious friends, and all of you who appreciate them, should watch it!
Have you bought emergency contraception?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Civil Rights, Feminism, Health
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.
Tags: emergency contraception, Feminism, Health, Sex in the Public Square, women
Um, no, that isn’t what the password is “sposed to be”
Posted by Cyn | Filed under College, Geekery
My school “upgraded” its Oracle-based student records management system weeks ago. I know that it is Oracle based because ever since the “upgrade,” every time I try to access my “student portal” (my primary means of interacting with the school, as an online student), I get an “Oracle Site Builder” page.
Since the actual classes are done on another site and I could still log in there, I kept waiting for the promised fix. The traditional “screwed up the financial aid” problem has gotten to the point where I really needed to get in to see what they’ve done so far, though, so I pushed further today than I have before and finally pushed a “help” (I use the term very loosely) desk person to actually help me.
He took down all my information and said that he’d have to go to his boss, but he’d call me back Real Soon Now. I had other irons in the fire, as well as his (rather unique) name, so I consented.
Oddly enough, my phone rang again in about five minutes.
“We needa ver’fy your infomashun.” (I’ll have to drop the attempt to reproduce the child’s mushmouth here. My spellchecker is hurting too much.)
Ok — we went over my student number and so on again.
Boy: “You don’t have an account.”
Me: “You mean my account has been deleted in your upgrade?”
Boy: “No, that can’t happen. You ain’t never had an account.”
Me: “That’s nonsense. I can log in and get the Oracle Site Builder page, therefore I have an account.”
Boy: “We can’t log in, so you don’t have an account.”
Me: “Why are you trying to use my log-in? You’re supposed to be trying to fix my account, as an administrator.”
Boy: “We have to be sure you’re really having a problem.”
Me: “You mean that you assume I’m lying before you’ll do anything.”
Boy: “No, we just have to be sure you’re not doing it wrong.”
Me: “Well, obviously, you’re ‘doing it wrong’ because I’m sitting here looking at the Oracle Site Builder while you can’t log in. Do you want me to e-mail you a screen print as proof?”
Boy: “What password you using?”
Me: “What kind of question is that? I don’t give people my password. Don’t be stupid.”
Boy: “The password don’t work.”
Me: “That’s because you don’t know my password.”
Boy: “It’s supposed to be (standard default password).”
Me: “No, it should NEVER be (standard default password) after a user’s first log-in. In fact, if your system were set up properly, it would force users to change the password after the first log-in, and at least once every 30 days after that.”
Boy: “No, it’s supposed to be (standard default password).”
Me: “Are you an IT major?”
Boy: “Yes, and the password is supposed to be (standard default password). If it ain’t, we can’t log in to people’s accounts.”
Silently thinking “and that’s the point, dolt,” I went in and changed the password to (standard default password), since that’s just about all I could do.
Me: “Ok, just to make you happy, I changed it. Try to log in now.’
Boy: “Now it’s right.”
Me: “So you can fix it?”
Boy: “I have to call you back.”
Me: “I don’t think so. I’ll just stick with you. That way if you find anything you don’t understand in my records, we can work on it together.”
Boy: “You have to call (number for portal help desk). They have to fix it for you.”
Me: “Why didn’t you send me to them in the first place?”
Boy: “I had to see if you really had a problem.”
I changed the password while he was giving me the 800 number, of course.
Boy: “What did you do?”
Me: “Whatever do you mean?”
Boy: “The system says I have to log in again.”
Me: “Well, surely as soon as you saw that I really had a problem, you logged out, since you had no further reason to be logged in as me. Nor do you need to log in as me again. I changed the password again.”
Boy: “You can’t do that. It’s supposed to be (standard default password).”
Me: “Have your sysadmin give me a call if he has a problem with it, but so far you’re the only one who ever has. Buh bye!”
I haven’t found anything he changed in my records. Not yet. I just don’t trust the little bastard. It also frightens the hell out of me to realize just how many students must not ever change their original passwords, since he’s accustomed to blithely logging in to everybody’s accounts, and it’s apparently a standard practice in the department!
Tags: online student, Oracle, Rant, student portal
Musicality
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Music
Are you tone deaf? How’s your tonal memory?
My score was 94.3%. What’s yours?
Homeschool to high school update
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Homeschooling
I haven’t mentioned how Katie is doing in school in a while. While there have been some adjustment issues switching over to “school” from homeschooling, she’s got all As. The “life by the bell” thing has been a nuisance, and she and one of her teachers just do not communicate on the same wavelength, but she’s dealing with it. She adores her art class, something I’m definitely not equipped to teach at all.
Two of her three academic classes are advanced, and the third would be but was already overcrowded when we registered her for classes. So much for having trouble getting into high school as a homeschooler.
The schedule isn’t easy on her body or the family, but again, she’s dealing. She does have increased fibromyalgia symptoms as a result, and has had to add a daily nap to her schedule after school.
One of the most difficult issues is having certain lines of discussion “off limits.” That’s just too weird, after years of being encouraged to follow her interests and inquiries wherever they lead. While she’s attending a relatively liberal school, the fact that it is a school means that there are constraints on subject matter.
Her literature teacher referred to chastity belts as a medieval urban legend earlier in the year, and when she started explaining just how very wrong he was, he slammed the discussion to a close. If the man is going to be so sloppy with his facts, he shouldn’t be surprised when he encounters disagreement!
Sam and I met someone yesterday who said, “Advanced classes are how we segregate these days.” I pointed out that they certainly aren’t new, as my own class of 1984 was tracked into advanced, regular, and remedial (although the last two weren’t called that, precisely) tracks, too. I found it an interesting statement, but we were in the middle of Charis Books and discussing many things, and didn’t get to pursue that one as far as I’d hoped. What do you think of it?
Grades!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under College
It seems that my grades are finally in.
Stupid required computer class: 93.54, and it was that low because the lazy fool teaching it refused to corrrect the WRONG answers in the computerized tests. Seriously — she never argued that the answers weren’t wrong. She just refused to adjust the grades. For instance, on one quiz, her answer insisted that all HTML tags occur in pairs. Um, no, idiot. Despite examples, she’s too lazy to correct the tests. The class began with an “introduction” to computers in general, specifically to Windows PCs, and never got past simple Word (not anything like mail merge), Excel (not even up to pivot tables) and the simplest of PowerPoint presentations. I want my time back.
Statistics: 99.54. Not bad for my first math class since 1985 or so, math phobia be damned! The professor never graded three of my quizzes, but I’m fairly sure I did well, and apparently I didn’t need them. I got 196/200 points on the final, and precisely what I missed is driving me crackers. Why, yes, I am obsessive-compulsive, why do you ask?
It was most likely the one question where I couldn’t even begin to figure out just what he was asking. It was a four-part question, and I know I got two parts right (those were pretty clear). The other two were random guesses. 25 questions total (most having multiple parts) means that I probably got half of that question (#17, as I recall) wrong, which would be 4 points out of the 200. I guess that was it, then. I wish I knew the right answers, though!
Now — how do I retain what I learned in the statistics course, which could be the single most useful course I have ever taken in my life? I can definitely see the professional applications when I’m working again, but here at home I don’t have a whole lot of reason to those calculations.
Tags: HTML, professional applications
Merle Haggard — America First
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Music
Tags: Merle Haggard
Gaia Consort on YouTube
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Music
Legally, ’cause they’re cool with it. In fact, I found out about it from their very own newsletter.
All We’ve Got — the music is through the camera, so it’s hard for me to follow the lyrics, but the music is great. The video begins with Chris speaking strongly (with some profanity — may not be work/kid-safe) to get out the vote.
“Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight” — the song is new to me, and another with poly content. It’s lovely.
Go to their web site for more coolness, of course!
Tags: YouTube