On the beach...

I like it and it's a good price. This may be it.

Of Virtue and Necessity

So I was looking for a new bikini through google directories; clicked Shopping, clicked clothing; clicked swimwear and the first link at the top of the webpages list was this: WholesomeWear. I was too curious and had to look. I'm not going to include any pictures from the site. They're simply too ugly. Downright ugly. Offensively ugly. Completely unflattering to anyone's figure. Ugh! I suppose these are wholesome swimsuits, but if so, they're wholesome in the sense of overcooked liver — disgusting and offensive.

On the other hand, there are certain women who, if they must wear swimsuits, would be best to wear things like this which completely hide their figures, which brings me to my thought for the day. When this sort of girl, who is perhaps 5'5" and 220lbs. speaks of how she insists on being modest, one rather thinks she's making a virture of necessity. If this same girl were 117lbs. it would be remarkable and admirable for her to insist on being modest, but at 220? That dog won't hunt, thankful as we may be for her modesty. It's much like the ugly shy girl who's proud of her virginity. She's never been tested.

Now this is not to say I'm not for modesty because I am. Just don't proclaim how you're going to be modest when no one would appreciate you being immodest. And if you're going to encourage girls to be wholesome and modest, offer them pretty and flattering yet modest things to wear, not utilitarian clothes that look like they were made in Soviet Russia!

And the weekend is gone.

We did nothing this weekend. Entirely boring. *sigh* Now it's back to work.

The weekend is almost here...

and contrary to how my avatar gets dressed up and goes out clubbing, I'm doing nothing interesting. Maybe we'll watch some movies. Maybe listen to the Grand Ole' Opry Saturday night. Probably nothing much else though. <Sigh>

Now this would be fun:

Only a lamer can't drive a stick!

So Daniel Craig can't drive a stick shift. How lame is that? I can drive a stick. I love driving a stick! I was fine with the guy as Bond until this. Why didn't they just keep Pierce Brosnan? He was the best (and cutest) Bond since Sean Connery, although he still didn't match-up to Sean.

Doesn't she look like an Olsen here?

Tanith Belbin, Olympic silver medalist in Ice Dancing, looks to me like she could be Mary Kate's and Ashley's slightly older sister. She and her partner Ben Agosto are the first Americans to win a medal in Ice Dancing in 70 years. Her costumes were tolerable.

Olympic Ice (Pole) Dancing

What is wrong with Olympic ice dancers? Who told them stripper chic was just the thing?  I was going to include a picture of last night's ice dancing, but I couldn't find one of the competitor I wanted -- the one with fringe circles over her boobs and the rest of the bodice flesh tone! Honey you look like a stripper! I'll admit some of them were OK, but none -- not a single one! -- of them were great! And that whole powder puff butt! Gack! I'll add a picture later if I can find one.

Update: Found it!

As you can see, the gold and silver medalist had Spanish bull fighting/flamenco themed costumes. The bronze? Stripper chic! Gah! Now, why couldn't the the Spanish themed costumes have just been pretty flamenco dresses? Why did they have to add all the cut-outs and weird lines? I really did enjoy the Russian's routine though. I love Carmen!

Next month is my...

^RD birthday so I'll be drinking this stuff!

Maybe next year

A girl can dream...

The Valentine's Day (Website) Massacre

So what was up with the Internet yesterday? Was everybody and his brother emailing and IMing for Valentine's Day? It was like half the web was down and the other half was slow. Trés annoying!

New Beauty Rule #2:

From the 5 New Rules of Beauty: Model your look after the white trash!

I saw this and just could not believe it! I guess I shouldn't be too surprised considering the popularity of Britney Spears and her "straight from the trailer park" look. I remember the girls in high school who sported this look and they weren't the ones who were, um, models of propriety or taste, shall we say. I'll admit, you do get used to the look, but that's not really a good thing. I never colored my hair in high school, but I hate to think that if I had I might have sucumbed to this affliction.

Updated: So am I being too harsh here? Am I overreacting? I just saw that item at Marie Claire and it hit me that this thing that had always been tacky before — girls not keeping their dye jobs fresh — was now fashionable and stylish. I guess what's fashionable flows from what is done by people who don't care much about fashion.

An odd occurance

I lost the back off an earring the other day while drving to work. They're these really cute but simple dangles and I'd just bought them so I was really irritated. Luckily I still had the card of earings in the car with me, so I pulled the back off another one and used it. I looked all around the car later, but couldn't find it. Today in the bathroom I found an earring back of the exact type I lost. I think it is the one I lost. It must have been stuck in my jacket or sweater and fallen off in there.

I will wash it before I use it.

— Σαρα

Guilty Pleasure

Shania Twain's Man I Feel Like A Woman is one of my guilty pleasures. I heard it Friday afternoon. I really don't like most of her music — it's not real country, it's twang pop. I really hate Any Man of Mine. I couldn't respect any man like that. But this one song is fun, and I can really identify with what she says. I think any girl can relate to what she describes in the lyrics, that feeling of carefree fun. That's why I like it.

— Σαρα

Accepting Free Will

I was reading Chayyei Sarah's blog entry on double standards where she mentioned Haredim. I couldn't place the term, so of course I Googled it. Google is your friend! This led me to reading about Haredi Judaism on Wikipedia. They seem like the Jewish version of the Old Order Mennonites or Old German Baptists.

Anyway, reading the entry, I was struck by this phrase: Halakha is a guide for everything the traditional Jew does from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep. This brought to mind some things I've been thinking about in terms of what God requires of us. What I see is that this extreme adherence to prescribed ritual is an attempt to discard free-will and refuse to take responsibility for oneself; an effort to place all of the responsibility for one's actions on God. Now this was an epiphany of sorts for me, because I've often been faced with people who are extremely bound up in attempting to discern the finest minutiae of the law, and I think I finally understand what it's all about. Jesus referenced this when He talked about the Pharisees who added so many traditions and rules around the law, making them more important than the the law itself. This is legalism and what it really is, is an attempt to not be spiritually mature, to not think for one's self in a Godly fashion.

I have an acquaintance who believes we do not have free will since we can't determine things like where we were born, or when; that because our choices are not unlimited, we don't have free will. I say that's silly. We do have free will, because we can make some choices, even if those choices are limited. If God gave us unlimited choices, then we would be gods ourselves, so He must restrict them for now. But God must give us free will or there's no point to our existance. God must allow evil, because if we cannot choose evil, we also cannot choose good. If we can't make the choice, then we can't show Godly character by our choices. What's the point of our existance if not to develop and show Godly character?

Now this comes back around to what I was saying about refusing our free will. By trying to live life by a rote, minute schedule, and having explicit rules for every possible event, one flees from having discernment, flees from making a choice, flees developing Godly character. If one has a heart like God's, like King David, she will make the right choices. If you live by a detailed menu of options, it's an attempt to circumvent God and be "right" with Him without having a heart like His. You can't do it. If you don't have a heart after His, you won't be right with Him.

God calls us again and again His children. If we are His children then we are to grow and be like Him. Just as we want our children to mature and learn to make their own decisions, and know they'll be the right ones, God wants us to grow up into His adult children, and know that we'll make the right decisions. Just as a mother shouldn't have to tell her teenage daughter to brush her teeth, so God shouldn't have to tell us every minute little point of doing right. He shouldn't be making every decision for us.

Now just as there are rules for adults, so are there rules for Christians: the Ten Commandments (including the Sabbath) are still binding on us. This is not legalism. If they're not binding, then murder is OK and that is prima facie absurd.

– Σαρα

Andy Moyet? Alison Bell?

So who else thinks that Andy Bell's and Alison Moyet's voices sound strikingly similar? The first few times I heard "Don't Go" by Yaz, it wasn't attributed, so I thought it was Erasure. Now I need to get "Upstairs at Eric's". I don't know the story of how Yaz folded and Erasure started, but I bet Vince Clark was fine with that vocal similarity.

So anyway I've found a cool online radio site, Pandora, and I've created my own radio channel, RadioRhubarb, playing my own weird mix of music — techno/trip-hop/country.

More nastiness in my cup!

Looking through the Java docs for the generic container stuff I found this method of Collections: unmodifiableCollection(). This lets you return an unmodifiable view on a collection. Umm, yik! What an atrocity! If Java didn't force all objects to be accessed through references, this awfulness would not be necessary. Java is just so broken. In C++ we simply say

const container<T> & get_container() const
{ return m_container; }

where m_container is declared thusly:

private:
container<T> m_container;


Since Java doesn't have a way to make the object itself constant they must resort to this sort of idiocy. They have a version of this method for each of the collection types. Garbage collection is the cause of all this idiocy. Java's garbage collection is so much lossage.

Hebrew Calendar (HCalendar)

Install Hebrew Calendar (HCalendar) at Firefox extension site.

This is pretty cool for anyone who is a Sabbatarian (like me). You can install the extension for Firefox (or Mozilla) or add it as a component on your personalized Google home page, if you have one. It will tell you the month, day of the month, and year in the Hebrew Calender. For instance, today is 3 Shevat, 5766. It will also annotate its display with names of special days, like Yom Kippur and display them in differently colored text. You can tell it your zip code or pick a near-by city so that it can determine when the sun sets for you.