Bits & bobs

May. 1st, 2015 09:55 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
1. I think when I get around to setting up the blog about shit that didn't annoy me it's going to be called Trying Patience (in a similar vein to the blog post the other day entitled to be found wanting, i.e. I am attempting patience but also and simultaneously shit annoys me).

2. I am having a lot of very grumpy feels I am contemplating trying to articulate on the general topic of People Criticising Christianity Wrong, by which I mean "people criticising it in such ways that are Obviously Incorrect from an in-group perspective/given a little more knowledge, but are considered funny by out-group, in ways that make it harder for people like the kid I was to leave because they're stuck defending this shit from people who appear to just be Wrong", and clearly some of that is likely to be an autism problem But.

3. Relatedly, I am cross about this snarky post doing the rounds on tumblr about how people should maybe CONSIDER volunteering at a soup kitchen or a shelter instead of going to CHURCH on Sundays, because of a whole pile of reasons that boil down to (a) fuck off I don't have to dedicate every fucking hour of my life to helping other people, (b) I am more effective at helping other people if I spend some time dedicated solely to looking after myself, (c) for me this is usually therapy but fundamentally the reason the Abrahamic religions encourage people to attend services/pray at least once a week is that theology-as-repository-of-psychosocial-extelligence has noticed that we work a fuck of a lot better if we spend at least an hour a week reflecting on choices we've made and actions we've taken and what we want to do and be, (d) historically and traditionally women have gone to mass every damn' morning because it was the only time they ever got to themselves when they weren't looking after other people, and (e) see (2).

4. Now I am waugh-ing a bit about having to choose which surgeon I want. Probably what will actually happen is I will throw myself upon the mercy of my various mates wot have had top surgery and get them to tell me who they like (who am I kidding, I'm basically just going to get them to reassure me that they're very happy with Yelland's results).

5. Lorimer had apparently not realised that a bunch of us who do the top surgery thing take advantage of slow nerve regrowth to get our nipples pierced while they don't actually have sensation.

6. There are actually bits of tumblr that are making me very happy, too, though! [tumblr.com profile] kaberett is basically a repository of Pretty Pictures, slanted towards blue stuff + botany + mineralogy + scientific illustration + skyscapes.

7. I had a really good conversation with [personal profile] sebastienne after last week's Elementary about ethics and story arcs, and maybe I will get my act together to write it up.

8. I am reading Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon and am kind of frowny-faced about some of the character arcs. I will perhaps write this up somewhere other than my spreadsheet; not sure.

9. Kew currently has orange-and-purple-and-green tulips in flower and they're great and I like them.

10. Wheelchair is inconveniently broken (but not in ways that make it unusable). Dentist is pleased with me. Sunshine happened. Weird slightly distant sad-feelings will hopefully go away when I sleep (or at least recede for a bit).

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-01 11:16 pm (UTC)
alexseanchai: Katsuki Yuuri wearing a blue jacket and his glasses and holding a poodle, in front of the asexual pride flag with a rainbow heart inset. (Default)
From: [personal profile] alexseanchai
people should maybe CONSIDER volunteering at a soup kitchen or a shelter instead of going to CHURCH

Dear author of said post: Must that be an "instead of" rather than an "as well as"?

(which reminds me, I should poke at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mystate site or the Read Aloud Mystate site or something to actually volunteer hours that aren't at the county library—not that there's anything wrong with volunteering at the county library! it's just that Mom suggested I do so, so I shan't)

theology-as-repository-of-psychosocial-extelligence

I like that.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-01 11:47 pm (UTC)
birke: (Default)
From: [personal profile] birke
That post was weird. Like, do they not realize that a tonne of soup kitchens and shelters are run by churches?

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 04:57 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] sorrillia
I suspect it's a response to that: people who are annoyed by Christians implying that churches are the only ones who run charities, which does seem to be annoyingly true, at least in parts of the US, think it's useful to complain that clearly the churches should stop doing anything else.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:35 am (UTC)
birke: (Default)
From: [personal profile] birke
Huh. I didn't know that was a complaint. I mean, that Christians are over-represented in the social services, yes, that is a problem, but that's not exactly the churches' fault. (And to that complaint, of course, kaberett's 3a and 3c.)

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:39 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] sorrillia
I've definitely heard Christians try to use that as an argument for why their religion should get government support (in the US, where it's unconstitutional for it to do so, but it often does anyway).

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:40 am (UTC)
birke: (Default)
From: [personal profile] birke
Blehhhh.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:42 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] sorrillia
And now I'm being annoyed with myself for not remembering when the Supreme Court decided the Bill of Rights was incorporated against the states in general, or in the specific case of the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. I feel like I must've learned this as an undergrad.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:05 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] sorrillia
(2) See, that makes more sense and is more useful to be upset about than my consistently attempting to explain to Protestants and American atheists (who are mostly from Protestant backgrounds) why Protestantism is clearly the wrong way to Jesus even though I don't Jesus and until recently was at war with the Pope...my relationship with Christianity just doesn't make any sense.

(3) Interesting: I hadn't actually considered that women going to church daily was probably the only socially acceptable escape from family responsibilities for them a lot of the time. I wonder how that changed things in Protestant countries where daily services were less likely a thing.

(4) Good luck. I am amused by how many of my friends are currently in the process of getting top surgery, though they're all in the US and so not really useful for you in this anyway.

(5) Huh, I didn't realize nerves regrew at all: I thought they just had to try to make things not get broken in the first place. (Also, I just really don't get nipple piercings: they sound terrifying. But then that's kind of my view on piercings in general.)

(9) I only recently realized that a line in a Kipling poem was talking about Kew and was a botany reference, and it was a sudden revelation.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:30 am (UTC)
birke: (Default)
From: [personal profile] birke
(5) I used to think that too, but apparently non-central nerves have the capacity for self-repair -- it's just really effing slow.

Edit: For example, http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/02/27/147344516/new-methods-could-speed-up-repair-of-injured-nerves

Edited Date: 2015-05-02 05:36 am (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 10:48 am (UTC)
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
From: [personal profile] rmc28
(5) I didn't know it was a thing until I had a c-section.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 09:26 pm (UTC)
sfred: Fred wearing a hat in front of a trans flag (Default)
From: [personal profile] sfred
*nods* I didn't realise it was a thing until recently when nipple that had lost all sensation when I had a ductectomy suddenly all came back x1.5.
Hoping the same happens after my top surgery, whenever that happens.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:26 pm (UTC)
davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
From: [personal profile] davidgillon
I hadn't actually considered that women going to church daily was probably the only socially acceptable escape from family responsibilities for them a lot of the time.

One of the Worldcon panels (with an all woman panel of medievalist SF/F writers) got on to Anchorites as sort of the ultimate expression of that (female mystics walled up in a cell in the church wall, with just an opening to pass food in and none of the standard woman's duties).

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 09:47 am (UTC)
sashajwolf: photo of Blake with text: "reality is a dangerous concept" (Default)
From: [personal profile] sashajwolf
People Criticizing Christianity Wrong drives me up the wall as well. Ex-Christian Druid Witch with theology degree here, but even in my Christian days, there was more than one occasion when I carefully and precisely explained to atheist friends what the actual strongest arguments against Christianity are and which narratives might actually persuade people to apostatize, so that they might criticize us better. (It did no good.)

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 11:22 pm (UTC)
quartzpebble: (fire swirl)
From: [personal profile] quartzpebble
Yep. For me, theodicy and realizing I was cherry-picking the Bible according to my own conscience so I really might as well skip the intermediary and go with my conscience anyway.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 10:30 am (UTC)
shanaqui: Bruce Banner and Tony Stark from Avengers, in the lab. ((BruceTony) Science bros)
From: [personal profile] shanaqui
3. Relatedly, I am cross about this snarky post doing the rounds on tumblr about how people should maybe CONSIDER volunteering at a soup kitchen or a shelter instead of going to CHURCH on Sundays, because of a whole pile of reasons that boil down to (a) fuck off I don't have to dedicate every fucking hour of my life to helping other people, (b) I am more effective at helping other people if I spend some time dedicated solely to looking after myself, (c) for me this is usually therapy but fundamentally the reason the Abrahamic religions encourage people to attend services/pray at least once a week is that theology-as-repository-of-psychosocial-extelligence has noticed that we work a fuck of a lot better if we spend at least an hour a week reflecting on choices we've made and actions we've taken and what we want to do and be, (d) historically and traditionally women have gone to mass every damn' morning because it was the only time they ever got to themselves when they weren't looking after other people, and (e) see (2).

Arghh arghhh how are they seeing those things as mutually exclusive? Or are they saying that any time spent on religion is taking away from time for charitable work? Grrghh.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 10:36 pm (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
I think the argument there is that they believe most people who profess to be Christians are so during the hour that they attend services, and at the rest of their time, they behave in ways that are opposed to the precepts. And then those same Sunday Christians take the attitude that they are holier than you are, because of their church attendance and belief and not because of any works done. The goad to volunteer in soup kitchens is essentially a "if you really believe these precepts, then follow the ones that talk about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and so forth, instead of just attending your services and sneering down your nose at those who have less than you."

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 10:39 pm (UTC)
shanaqui: Quistis from Final Fantasy VIII. Text: within these walls. ((Quistis) Trapped)
From: [personal profile] shanaqui
That's an argument I agree with, and not how the argument as described sounds, I think?

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-03 10:28 pm (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
Maybe so. I could not find something on Tumblr resembling this thing, so I may be extrapolating something that isn't there.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-03 10:52 pm (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
Thanks.

...that's a lot less actually said than what I was thinking. Yeah, no.

Could have been what they were thinking, but in guessing they weren't really thinking at all past a surface point.

Apologies for making them smarter than they actually are.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 05:36 pm (UTC)
davidgillon: A pair of crutches, hanging from coat hooks, reflected in a mirror (Default)
From: [personal profile] davidgillon
Trying Patience

Must admit my initial thought was before a jury of its peers

clearly some of that is likely to be an autism problem But.

But they're still wrong, amongst other buts! I have this problem too, to the point of actually needing to semi-defend DWP a week or so ago.

a repository of Pretty Pictures

Ooh, the giraffe-y coloured dragon!

Wheelchair is inconveniently broken

:(

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 06:26 pm (UTC)
steorra: Part of Saturn in the shade of its rings (Default)
From: [personal profile] steorra
I'm interested in your thoughts on People Criticizing Christianity Wrong. (I'm reminded of a phrase I heard from someone involved in a pro-life/pro-choice dialogue movement, 'trying to get beyond misunderstanding to sincere disagreement').

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-02 09:54 pm (UTC)
steorra: Part of Saturn in the shade of its rings (Default)
From: [personal profile] steorra
Yeah, that makes sense.

(no subject)

Date: 2015-05-03 05:52 pm (UTC)
el_staplador: (Default)
From: [personal profile] el_staplador
Co-signed on 3, particularly a). And b) and c), come to think of it. I am getting better at rolling my eyes and laughing at 2.

Also, tulips!

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kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
kaberett

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