(no subject)

I'm pretty dang feminist if I say so myself. But I see feminism as an equality-based philosophy; I am not really fond of the hard-core Dianic "I am terrifically amazing because I have a womb" faction- possibly because I don't have one, but even still.

The Statesman has an article about the choices women make, and the results of those choices. It's a nice look at that whole frustrating shades of grey thing; women make less money than men, but it's not just because of the horrible inequality and sexism that's an inevitable part of society ("come and see the violence inherent in the system!") blah blah blah. It looks like some of it boils down to the fact that women take time out of their careers to have kids, and slow down in their career advancement while they're raising them.

Now, maybe there are a lot of women who wish they didn't have to be the primary caregivers of their children, but most of the women I know embrace that role willingly. I know there is a faction that believes they should get paid for it, or have some kind of affirmative action that levels the playing field between them and childless women, and I have my own opinions about that. But it's good to think that a lot of the remaining disparity in wages is due to choices we willingly make. I don't want to take a job where I might get shot at or have burning buildings fall on me or whatever. I don't begrudge the higher pay for that kind of work. I have taken a pretty big hit in the paycheck because I value my free time more than the money I'd be making. And I am very happy with that.
( here's the text of the article )

(no subject)

I've added the Daily OM to my perma-links up there on my LJ header. Not sure why I don't feel like signing up; I guess I just don't want any more emails from non-people. Plus I plan to ditch Time Warner at the first opportunity, so it's one less place I'd have to change my email address at.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the topics. In addition to enjoying the ones that make me go 'aha' there's the ones that solidify some aspect of a philosophy I'm already aware of and trying to apply. For instance, Friday's topic was ( thinking small )

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This speaks nicely to getting rid of the 'all-or-nothing' mentality we often use to trap ourselves with. If you don't score an obvious, undisputable, 100% victory, then you are a big failure- screw that. I think hub's finding the same philosophy in learning Go, where it's possible to lose well, and that can be just as satisfying as winning. It's a pretty un-American way of thinking, so it doesn't come easily to a lot of us.

(no subject)

The fish nerds were right.

I have previously been feeding my fish (neon, cardinal, Buenos Aires, and black neon tetras, scissortail rasboras, plecos, and one betta) a steady diet of TetraColor flakes with a couple of dried blood worms for the betta. They seemed to have been doing fine, but when I made my last fish purchase at AquaTek, the fish nerd convinced me to get little frozen cubes of blood worms. She recommended that I thaw them out, but I asked her if it was okay for me to just throw the cube in the water right out of the freezer, which would thaw it out pretty quickly anyway. It was. The cubes are pretty cheap- you get a month's worth in a package that costs like five bucks.

So in cleaning the tank these days, there is a whole hell of a lot less poop to deal with. Turns out the Tetra stuff is the equivalent of Twinkies and Big Macs. It's been Super Size Me in the aquaria. Oh dear.