Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
I love Technology
I miss my laptop. I miss having a decent pc in the house. We have at the moment, what I call Frankenstein's Computer. It is a machine created out of all the bits of previous pcs that my husband has never got rid of since he is a hoarder, and "they might be useful one day". I will give him his due, he was sort of right this time, as we do have a prehistoric monster in the corner of our bedroom that we can just about download our emails from. But that's pretty much it. At the moment, I am using my mum's work laptop, as she has lent it to us, for Neil to do some online applications.
Anyway, this got me thinking about the strange reaction technology can get within the Pagan world. There seems to be a lot of harking back to the "good old days", when we didn't have the technology we have now. I find this strange, since most of our standard of living comes from the way we use technology.
I think a lot of pagans consider appreciating technology in the same light as enjoying materialism. While we don't need to have the latest plasma screen tv, i-Pod, mobile (cell) phone, etc, etc...we do however have a need for the technology that makes solar panels, creates clean energy, builds our homes in sustainable ways, etc, etc...
I was walking around Gloucester Cathedral last weekend. Walking over the graves of our ancestors. I was grateful for living in this turn of the century, not the last, or further back. Reading the epitaphs of young women who have died in childbirth is quite chilling. I KNOW that if I had been around in the past, if either my son and I had survived his birth, I would have lost him at 4 months. And both my daughter and I certainly would have died during her birth. That's what technology has done for us.
Perhaps I am being melodramatic, but we do seem to take a lot for granted in this century. Wishing for simpler times may not be quite the same thing, but it depends on what is meant by simpler times.
Anyway, this got me thinking about the strange reaction technology can get within the Pagan world. There seems to be a lot of harking back to the "good old days", when we didn't have the technology we have now. I find this strange, since most of our standard of living comes from the way we use technology.
I think a lot of pagans consider appreciating technology in the same light as enjoying materialism. While we don't need to have the latest plasma screen tv, i-Pod, mobile (cell) phone, etc, etc...we do however have a need for the technology that makes solar panels, creates clean energy, builds our homes in sustainable ways, etc, etc...
I was walking around Gloucester Cathedral last weekend. Walking over the graves of our ancestors. I was grateful for living in this turn of the century, not the last, or further back. Reading the epitaphs of young women who have died in childbirth is quite chilling. I KNOW that if I had been around in the past, if either my son and I had survived his birth, I would have lost him at 4 months. And both my daughter and I certainly would have died during her birth. That's what technology has done for us.
Perhaps I am being melodramatic, but we do seem to take a lot for granted in this century. Wishing for simpler times may not be quite the same thing, but it depends on what is meant by simpler times.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Oh Yeah!
And btw, if the man in my life decided that I was the one that had to pick up his socks and generally run his life for him? After a month of not having anything that he has used cleaned or put away unless he does it, I am sure he would get the hint.
Fay Weldon
To be honest, I am tempted to just dismiss this latest hoo-hah over Fay Weldon's comments this week, and blame on the fact that she is an old dear, and therefore may be becoming prone to making comments that are blatently full of shit. I won't though. I suppose if you have ever considered Fay Weldon to be a feminist, then it is a blow to read one of your icons come out with such a crock.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1209154/Fay-Weldon-Women-life-easier-picked-mens-socks-cleaned-loo.html
But the worse thing about it all is this insistance on telling how useless the poor men are. You know, women need to look after them, and change their opinions to make sure they don't threaten their poor minds and egos. I am completely willing to accept that men and women are wired differently. But you know what, everyone is wired differently from everyone else. It has fuck all to do with gender. Gender is a really easy box to put people into, "well, they don't do tidying because they are a man." Nooo, they don't do tidying because they either hate it, or they are lazy fuckers.
If both of you are working, then both of you clean the house. If both of you are working, then both of you cook. If both of you are working, then IT IS AN EQUAL FUCKING RELATIONSHIP WHERE BOTH OF YOU PULL YOUR OWN WEIGHT!
Now, I am a full-time mum at the moment. My husband works hard, but he acknowledges that SO DO I! Looking after children is knackering. Caring for anyone takes time, effort and it is worth something. More than it gets at the moment. Our jobs are different, but one isn't more important than the other. And it certainly doesn't mean that my husband doesn't do anything around the house or with the children. And if I worked fulltime, then he would do more, not less.
Some men would probably live in a hovel if they could get away with it. Some women probably would. But usually someone who lives on their own can cope with the idea of housework. Why does that change for a man as soon as a woman is on the scene. In fact, I would be interested to know what the dynamics are with gay couples get together? Or is it still that old chestnut of gay men aren't the same because they are gay? That argument gets very old very quickly.
So, yes Fay. Quite frankly, I think you are talking out of your arse!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1209154/Fay-Weldon-Women-life-easier-picked-mens-socks-cleaned-loo.html
But the worse thing about it all is this insistance on telling how useless the poor men are. You know, women need to look after them, and change their opinions to make sure they don't threaten their poor minds and egos. I am completely willing to accept that men and women are wired differently. But you know what, everyone is wired differently from everyone else. It has fuck all to do with gender. Gender is a really easy box to put people into, "well, they don't do tidying because they are a man." Nooo, they don't do tidying because they either hate it, or they are lazy fuckers.
If both of you are working, then both of you clean the house. If both of you are working, then both of you cook. If both of you are working, then IT IS AN EQUAL FUCKING RELATIONSHIP WHERE BOTH OF YOU PULL YOUR OWN WEIGHT!
Now, I am a full-time mum at the moment. My husband works hard, but he acknowledges that SO DO I! Looking after children is knackering. Caring for anyone takes time, effort and it is worth something. More than it gets at the moment. Our jobs are different, but one isn't more important than the other. And it certainly doesn't mean that my husband doesn't do anything around the house or with the children. And if I worked fulltime, then he would do more, not less.
Some men would probably live in a hovel if they could get away with it. Some women probably would. But usually someone who lives on their own can cope with the idea of housework. Why does that change for a man as soon as a woman is on the scene. In fact, I would be interested to know what the dynamics are with gay couples get together? Or is it still that old chestnut of gay men aren't the same because they are gay? That argument gets very old very quickly.
So, yes Fay. Quite frankly, I think you are talking out of your arse!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Just Too Much.
What do you do when it all just gets too much? When you are having a major "stop the planet, I wanna get off" moment? What do you do when the patriarchal bullshit, ecological ignorance, and general "don't give a shit" attitude of your peers gets to a level that you just don't want to deal with it anymore?
Honestly? You shout and swear a lot. And you keep doing what you are doing. How can you do anything else?
I am having a real STP,IWGO! moment right now. However, I can't just stop, I have to keep getting up, living life, and generally getting on with what I get on with.
Oh well...
Honestly? You shout and swear a lot. And you keep doing what you are doing. How can you do anything else?
I am having a real STP,IWGO! moment right now. However, I can't just stop, I have to keep getting up, living life, and generally getting on with what I get on with.
Oh well...
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Quiet of late.
I haven't really posted much here of late. Visiting friends and then a bout of Swine Flu combined with my laptop going POP!FIZZ! has meant that I don't get onto a pc that much.
I have started my 101/1001. Nothing major done yet, just simple things like buying myself flowers. Neil has put in his official grievance with work, and it is now just a a case of waiting to see what they do next. (A long and complicated story that I may one day get into.)
The summer school holidays have been dull and dreary so far. We don't look like we are getting away at all, as we can't go abroad (no current passports) and the weather is being too crap for going anywhere in the UK.
Hopefully I will get more in the flow so to speak and post more.
I have started my 101/1001. Nothing major done yet, just simple things like buying myself flowers. Neil has put in his official grievance with work, and it is now just a a case of waiting to see what they do next. (A long and complicated story that I may one day get into.)
The summer school holidays have been dull and dreary so far. We don't look like we are getting away at all, as we can't go abroad (no current passports) and the weather is being too crap for going anywhere in the UK.
Hopefully I will get more in the flow so to speak and post more.
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