(no subject)

Yesterday was undignified doctor visit. You may remember I had horrid menstrual cramps, and haven't been in for a Pap for a couple of years anyway, so it was time. To punish me for not coming in regularly, the ob-gyn (with about 8 skillion pics of fat, drooling babies that he delivered on every flat surface) did the Pap, then took a drilling of my uterine lining which was painful as hell ("this may be a bit uncomfortable!" yeah, right). Then he did the finger exam, and in addition to the usual undignified groping, he decided to 'feel the back of my uterus' by going in the back door. Aaaaah! He never had to do that before!

Then since nothing obvious showed up to explain the pain, he's decided to go ahead and order an internal ultrasound (which is extremely undignified), and he said 'we may as well get a mmammogrammm, you're due for your first one anyway.' I'm 34. So yeah, I get to pay someone to violate me with a buzzing probe (not in the fun way) then mash my ta-tas between two sheets of cold metal (from what I hear). I'm not looking forward to it. :P

After that, we went to get some pool chemicals. The pool got green again, probably because we haven't treated it at all this year in any way except for throwing shock in it occasionally, plus it's been really hot. It went almost overnight from being really clear to being a fairly opaque dark green. So we took a sample in and talked to a twitchy fellow who did know his stuff. He only sold us $60 worth of chemicals; in the same situation last year we were sold about $120 worth. We dumped the first batch in and it's already turned blue this morning, though it's still really cloudy. I started round 2 today.

We also went to a matinee of 'Spider Man'. I was distracted trying to figure out where else I'd seen the actress who played Mary Jane, and finally realized about 5 minutes before the end. I kept looking at her teeth, then it hit me- she played the little girl vampire in 'Interview with a Vampire.' Aha! Anyway, it was a decent movie. There were some plot holes, and I've never understood why superheroes always feel driven to keep their identities secret from the people they love, especially when everyone else seems to know anyway. If the loved ones knew then they'd at least have some idea why supervillains always seemed to pick on them, and maybe be able to protect themselves better. Bah.

Today was visit to the dentist. I am told I have fabulous gums. That's always nice to hear. I've scheduled the probing and squishing of the female bits for next week. I could have had it done a lot closer to where I live if I was willing to wait a few weeks, but I'd just as soon get it over with.

Mosquitoes are getting really bad. I hate them, and get really bad welts from the bites. But, fireflies are everywhere at dusk too, and that is cool.

(no subject)

I posted this on wiccan, but I have to talk about it.

I've run into lots of people who seem to have very simplistic notions of what the Rede is. 'Harm none?' they say. 'That's not possible! If I wanted to feel bad because I can't reach an unattainable goal, I'd stick with being a Catholic!' I never was able to clearly express why this bothered me, and wondered about it myself. So I read and recommend to anyone who asks about it a book by Robin Wood, which as far as I know is the only book ever written about the Rede.

Then I ran across this rant in a website that I absolutely love, but the convoluted explanation of the Rede was hard for me to wrap my brain around. It didn't help that the author referred to people that even needed the longer explanation as 'literacy impaired', and basically implied that anyone that doesn't understand is a moron. Looking past the acidic writing style, I agreed with what I read, as much as I could figure out. Then I noticed a link that went to another explanation that said almost exactly the same thing but for some reason the concept immediately snapped into focus in my tiny brain, crystal clear. Here it is:

The Wiccan Rede states "An it harm none, do as you Will," although occasionally it reads "and ye harm none, do as ye will." The Wiccan Rede DOES NOT mean that one must tiptoe through life afraid to accidentally cause harm. The use of "an" is very deliberate, and in modern English is closer to "as long as." An expanded reading of the Rede, using both its implicit and inferred meaning, could read: "An it harm none, do as you Will, An it harm SOME, do as you ought." This "ought" is defined by the remainder of the ethics of Wicca and the life experiences of the individual. Put in modern words and form, the Rede says "If an action will cause no harm, do it freely, but if it has the capacity to cause harm, use your religious and other experiences to decide the best course of action that causes the least amount of harm to yourself and others." It should be here noted that most Wiccans also believe in the Star Trek maxim "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Hooray! I don't know why that went down so much easier than the other, but there you are. I am really pleased that I stumbled across this.