conuly

Why *does* powercycling work?

Here's the question. I know I'm probably a bit biased when it comes to religion because I'm not religious. At all. And then you see these fundies, and even though you *know* the vast majority of religious people are perfectly reasonable people... you end up twisting your views a little to see all religious people as potentially creepy and illogical and, well... insane. In a bad way. After all, they all believe in weird things that can't be proven, right? Right? It's all fascinating, but... different.

But I'm told that many religious people have the same views about non-religious people. And I know full well that most people on either side don't recognize their own bias when they walk right into it.

So, here's my question: Are there any atheist/agnostic fundies out there I haven't encountered before? Because I'd like to see, just for my own edification. I'm not sure if my belief that there aren't any is because, well, there aren't any, or if it's because I just don't see them as much/clearly.

(Oh, and click the scary link. Thanks)

The Nice Helpful Person was at the desk (the same one who let me go in without card or paying when I called ahead and explained the card was lost), and apparently the person who deals with these problems was in, so she got it fixed up while we were at the toddler program. That was simple.

And I am determined. Ana has a friend in the toddler program, a girl Barbara, I am determined to talk to her mom and exchange contact information because after the baby is born, I won't be coming to the toddler program with Ana, at least for a while, and the two really are good friends, as much as any two toddlers can be, so I'd like to keep in touch.

Now, I have a question. Say, in a completely and totally hypothetical situation (note the use of sarcastic italics to indicate that this situation is not at all hypothetical) the toddler programs are being run by a different person than they used to be run by. And before it was mostly unstructured play, with a bit of singing and stories and games (AND BUBBLES!) at the end, and now the person running it does less "structured" stuff at the end.

And you prefered the old system. Would you:

A. Keep quiet
B. Talk to your friends while in the program about how you "hate to complain" but the other person was better because she did *insert activity* and this person doesn't
C. Talk to the person running the program, say you hate to complain, and finish it from there?

Which option, to you, seems best?

Because I'm sure it isn't B, and yet that seems the prefered option. Not just in this situation, either, but this is the most recent time I've seen this.

I'd been nice and healthy for ages, then I spent this weekend being sick. Didn't help that it was broiling hot and that none of the trains were working, or that everyone in the city had the same idea I had, which was to go to the air-conditioned bookstore.

Drippy nose, sinus infection, and I couldn't think. Ick.

I'm feeling much better now, though, and I'm not watching the kid (because she's upstate, not because I'm neglecting her), so that's okay.

Wish I'd felt better yesterday, or the day before, though.

And now I have a semi-serious question.

Oftentimes, when I go on the boat during the weekend, it's like the entire Hassidic population (or at least, Orthodox Jewish and I *think* they're Hassidic) of NYC has decided to make an excursion to Staten Island. Which has led me to make one observation: All the time, in these large families, the girls are dressed alike (and sometimes the boys too).

I asked my mom, and she said that in order to find dresses that fit that idea of modesty, you either have to make them yourself, generally using the same pattern for everyone, or you buy them and snatch up as many sizes as you can when you do. Which I can believe, considering what most *other* people seem to think is acceptable for dresses for little kids...

But why all alike? Do the girls only have one dress each? That can't be.

This leads to another question. Is it just that I notice it more with the Jewish families, or am I actually seeing something here? Because certainly the "let's dress the kids alike" idea exists elsewhere (and if anybody can give me any insight on this phenomenon, I'd appreciate it, because it doesn't make any sense to me), so why do I tend to associate it with twins and Orthodox Jews? Is it because I'm seeing a larger family (often), so it sticks in my mind? Or because it's a fairly distinctive style of dress here? Well, not that distinctive, unless you see it all the same.... Or because I have a prejudice I didn't know?

Or maybe I'm crazy? I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud while not actually being out loud.

1. If you're not reading gpf_comic_jk, you should remedy the situation immediately.
2. A while back, I set myself to reading all the back comics. One storyline had them going through time. At one point, one of the characters suffers... a bit of a mishap.

Now, what's really interesting is that despite the fact that I consciously knew he was talking backwards, I couldn't read the words backwards. I couldn't even see them backwards unless I took the effort. Every time I saw his text, I read it forwards, then had to stop and say "no, wait, he's talking backwards" and translate this like it.

I have one question about this. Why?

Oh, and read gpf_comic_jk.

You're watching the news, or a documentary, and there's a part about somebody with an incurable (but treatable!) disease (or some other sort of disability, really doesn't matter). The narrator will eventually get to the part where they say, in somber tones appropriate to announcing a death, that whoever it is will have to "take this medication every day for the rest of his life" or "test his blood sugar" or whatever dread thing it is.

Why?

Really, is it that onerous to take some medication? When somebody is recovering from anorexia, do we say, in solemn tones, that they will have to eat three times a day for the rest of their lives? When somebody recovers from insomnia, do we make a point of mentioning that up to a third of their remaining years will be spent unconscious?

Of course not. I recognize that these diseases aren't cured by medication, and that normally people don't take medicine every day (for the rest of their life!!!), but that's not the point. I still don't see why this is such a huge deal that it deserves the grave voice of tragedy.