A houseful of men
Nov. 14th, 2004 01:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusI have one kitty snoring next to me. Yes, he snores. We call it the snore-squeak.
In the kitchen I have neatly arranged two men, happily playing with outdoor catalogues and making gruff noises at eachother. "It's a fucking shit pack. They say this is some great outdoor bag..."
"Did you use it on your PCT trip?"
"Oh, it was all right on board the ship, but not for on the fuckin' trail. I don't need a four season tent either. Four season's a waste a time unless you're a mountaineer."
"Well actually at MSR they have some light four-season tents. But there's no point unless you move up here. Where you are now, you can get away with a three-season year round. You need to deal with the chiggers and ticks though, so you need free-standing."
All delivered in a monotone, in what I call the 'outdoorsman's mumble.' *smirks*
Ah, men. *listens to the kitty snore*
In the kitchen I have neatly arranged two men, happily playing with outdoor catalogues and making gruff noises at eachother. "It's a fucking shit pack. They say this is some great outdoor bag..."
"Did you use it on your PCT trip?"
"Oh, it was all right on board the ship, but not for on the fuckin' trail. I don't need a four season tent either. Four season's a waste a time unless you're a mountaineer."
"Well actually at MSR they have some light four-season tents. But there's no point unless you move up here. Where you are now, you can get away with a three-season year round. You need to deal with the chiggers and ticks though, so you need free-standing."
All delivered in a monotone, in what I call the 'outdoorsman's mumble.' *smirks*
Ah, men. *listens to the kitty snore*
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-13 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-13 02:06 pm (UTC)My kids, particularly Kid Two, will fall asleep just anywhere. It's kind of scary how good at this they are--standing up, sitting up, torso on the couch feet on the floor...whatever. So the other night Kid Two fell asleep in Not His Bed. I can't carry him--he weighs about 105 pounds at age almost-nine--so I drag him to his feet and start walking him to bed. More like dancing him, really; he puts his arms around my neck like I'm going to pick him up, leans against me, and we shuffle-and-sway.
He snored the entire way to bed. While walking.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-13 02:40 pm (UTC)Have you ever noticed that sleeping cats can have a soporific effect on humans? I'll be sitting in bed, reading, the cat will join me, she'll start to snooze, and before I know it, I'm dropping off, too. It's horrible...
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Date: 2004-11-13 05:39 pm (UTC)what is it with guys?
and then they do that manly chuckle thing, and the back slapping *rolls eyes*... it's great.
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Date: 2004-11-13 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-13 08:12 pm (UTC)In all honesty, I don't have an answer to the gender question. But I have observed that some girls reared in very 'gender-neutral' social environments still act extraordinarily feminine and espouse the most amazing "girls don't act like that" beliefs. Meanwhile, the sister raised in the same environment is every bit the strong, aggressive confident kid the parents expected.
My opinion? When we look at something as deceptively simple as gender, we're really looking at a vastly complex web of genes, individual predisposition, and social matrices, with event-driven sideroads and personal choice thrown in there for good measure. All mixed together in an incredible incomprehensible mess.
The Buddhists call this "karma" though I think karma could be accurately translated to "complexity" or "complexity in flux." Interdependently-driven complexity, but the simplistic idea that most people have attached to the word karma is wrong. The verbatum translation from the Tibetan word for karma, "Leh", is "Action," with implies action necessitates result. Thus, change. Something other religions will call something else, but mean something in the same ballpark.
I think psychology can help with the event-driven part of this mess, while spirituality in all various brandnames ideally helps increase free will. Something that also goes against common wisdom, but folks don't understand the inner freedom of a spiritual path, because they mistake the discipline of the methods with the freedom of the results. They only know that they tend to respect the calm of those who are good at it.
Then individual predisposition is important for people to recognize in themselves, so they don't try to travel paths inappropriate to them. Like the Tomboy miserable in the pretty pink dress, my my friends' feminine daughter forced into that karate class... so wrong for her, though they meant well.
The ideal world in my mind allows for women in the military as much as women at home caring for the kids and baking bread. It's a pity the feminist movement wishes to leave out women who don't fit their pictures through their obstinant refusal to accept individual choice (for all that the purport to support it) can include religious vocation, or the formerly 'ladylike' pursuits. But this is the social matrix I mentioned, and it's human for these to be created no matter how hard we try to avoid them. The result of each and every social matrix is going to be bad for someone. The problem arises when we try to change the social matrix without taking into account the rest of human equation. You might as well do Confucianism then.
Bring on the inquisition. I can have a dissertation ready for them in a week.
Icarus *that was fun!*
no subject
Date: 2004-11-13 08:16 pm (UTC)I remember when I broke gender lines at the tender age of five, and stood up to the boys who kicked the little girls out of the sandbox every day. The next day the little girls snubbed me, and the boys I'd stood up to offered to let me play with their trucks. I guess I had honorary "boy" status. But as a non-boy I was offended rather than honored. Heh.
Gender politics. *shakes head*
Icarus
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Date: 2004-11-13 08:21 pm (UTC)Someone ought to invent a "cat spa" with big sunny windows, where the clients curl up on soft ledges with quietly snoozing kitties, belly up and happy. I think we'd live longer, expecially some of the busier people I know. Dick Cheney could probably use it (better for him than the pacemaker, I bet). Hey, I'm gracious to the bad guys.
Icarus
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Date: 2004-11-13 08:22 pm (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2004-11-13 08:23 pm (UTC)*g*
Icarus
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Date: 2004-11-13 09:56 pm (UTC)Only problem I have trying to actually use the sound to fall asleep to is that cats breathe so much faster that you have to count your own breaths to two or three cat breaths or else hyperventilate.
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Date: 2004-11-13 10:00 pm (UTC)What happened/happens to Percy after the war? I figure his knowledge at Lucius' right hand might make him a great witness helping the aurors and judiciary convict other Death Eaters, and to rebuild out of the destroyed records... He's just so amazing fighting the geas that I hope good things happen to him...
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Date: 2004-11-13 10:41 pm (UTC)Percy gets credit for 'rescuing' the prisoners from the Ministry and wins the election against his father.
He's a lousy Minister however, indecisive and easily swayed by public opinion. He quickly discovers that it was very convenient under Lucius to have employees who are obligated to obey. A free Ministry is very different.
But there are a lot administrative efficiencies and improvements he makes. Floo connection requests and that sort of thing go through more quickly. He also renames quite a few buildings after himself (a fact that annoys Ron).
Percy loses the next election, and then settles into the lucrative business of publishing his voluminous and rather padded memoirs, referring to his tenure as Minister as a sort of golden age.
Icarus *g*
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Date: 2004-11-14 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-14 12:29 am (UTC)Let's all do what we are best suited for and help others do the same.
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Date: 2004-11-14 06:01 am (UTC)So sad watching him fantasize over the doomed mudbloods, knowing he shouldn't get attached because he can't save them...
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Date: 2004-11-14 07:22 pm (UTC)I definitely played Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers with the boys when I was little.
I was also taller than all the boys until middle school.