Monday, January 28, 2013

Monday musings

My recent addiction to Tedtalks on YouTube led me to a video from the woman who's research I talked about in my recent blog post, so I thought I would post it up because it is very interesting:


All I can say is I'm glad my husband went to college....and that we're from a different generation anyway.

In other news...it's snowing here.  Big fat, fluffy, wet flakes that will hopefully melt off of the road before I have to go to work for a class tomorrow.

Speaking of work, last week I made the transition to the ICU, working nights.  I'm not thrilled about nights at all.  I thought since I sleep so badly anyway that it wouldn't be so hard, but boy, I was wrong!  The first 2 nights I felt like a zombie at about 2 am.  And I forgot how quiet nights are!  I'm going to have to remember to bring a good book again because I might actually have time to read at work!

Then I got sick.  Really sick.  Like, spend all day in bed dozing and watching bad tv sick.  I'm going to blame it on working nights.  Viva la ICU!


Remember, it's just a ride.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

We'll always need janitors

I've been getting into TEDtalks lately.  I don't know if anyone reading this has seen them, but basically, they're 18-20 minute talks on a range of different subjects.  Interesting subjects.  I know this will seem UnAmerican, but they get you thinking about different things you might not necessarily think about, which, UnAmerican as that is, is a good thing.

One of the topics I've been perusing lately is womens' rights and feminism.  I believe it's an important subject, because I am one, but I think it should be just as important to men as well.  Why?  Well...I'll tell you my opinion on that, and just let you all formulate your own.

Last week, I got this post on my FaceBook feed:

 Photo

 I thought it was pretty succinct given the recent opinions of certain politicians.  I also thought that it was good to point out to men that the excuses of "she dressed liked she wanted it" showed that men are basically being told they are stupid lumps of clay that can't control their impulses....kinda like babies can't control their poo.  It's not their fault, their sphincters are weak.

And apparently, so are men.

Which got me into the TEDtalks.  Not that I hadn't been watching them before, but now I was looking for talks on women and education, violence, and misogyny in general.  And I wanted the flip side of misogyny: misandry, or for normal people, the hatred of men.

I believe these two things really walk hand in hand now, but they look very different.  We all can recognize mysogyny: rape, domestic violence, in some countries not letting girls get educated or aborting female fetuses because they don't have the weight a male fetus does, etc.

But what about misandry?  It can be just as blatant, but I think more of it is very subtle, like this rape statement on FaceBook.  It implies that men can't control themselves, that they are children saying "she made me do it!", that there is no reason for impulse control.  It's very damaging to men really, and return, damaging to women.

The next place my thoughts turned to was education.  Here in the US, we don't really have the problem of not sending our girls to school.  Our problem is that now, girls are outperforming guys in school.   Especially college.  It seems that girls finally get it- if you have a better education, you yourself will be better off.  As a matter of fact, there was a huge study done awhile back on this, and the results reported about men in regards to this is really disheartening.  It is in an article titled "The End of Men" in the Atlantic  from 2010.

What did it show?  Well, women were out educating and out working their men, and while good for women, it looks bad for men.  They are now "lost".  Why?  The article pointed to men gravitating towards physical jobs, and those jobs are being shipped out of the country, or laying off workers, and there seems to be no where for men to turn.  (but, just as a side note, there are always physical jobs, nurse, trucker, stockboy, trash collectors, janitors)

No where?  Can't go back to school?  Women do that all the time!  Uh oh.  Women. Do. That. All. The. Time.

It's interesting, the article talks about how much men invest in their work, and how much more devastating it is when they get laid off because men's worth is very much tied into their status as a "breadwinner".  And don't get me wrong, I very much understand this.  But the article also pointed to how much men do not roll with the punches and devise a new plan, a new way to be the breadwinner.  They get depressed, drink, cheat, blame their spouses, abuse the people around them, and get divorced because they can't get over or move on from their pain.

Unfortunately, to go hand in hand with this blow, is also the seeming "dependent generation" of men.  You know the ones:  still live at home after high school, play video games all day, don't have a job and not looking for one, aren't in college, only live to paaaaarty.  Is it just me, or are there more of these guys every day?  Of course women are going to outperform guys, if this is what they've decided to do!

Now, don't get all mad at me, I know I'm not talking about every guy, and I know economic situations are tough, I was a single mom of 2 for cryin' out loud, but somehow, it feels all of a sudden, like we aren't expecting very much out of our men.  Misandry.  Makes 'em all look like dumbass loosers, and they're not.

And then I had a startling thought related to that FaceBook post:  That story, that "oldest story in the Bible" of an evil women getting everyone thrown out of the garden?  It's just another story about men having no control over themselves.  Imagine what would be if Adam just said to Eve, "I won't do that because I know its wrong."



Remember, it's just a ride.


Thursday, January 3, 2013

The one where I get what I want

Yes it is!


Happy New Year all!  As promised, I am back, mostly from guilt, not really because anything is going on, you know how it can be some days....

Anyway, to start off the new year, I thought I'd talk about me, getting my way....at work of all places!

My manager announced a month ago that she was stepping down and going to be just a normal staff nurse because she needs more experience to graduate college with a brand new MS, which is cool and all, but to do that, she took the spot in the ICU on days that I was supposed to get!  Then she tried to tell me that she never promised to move me at the first of the year, and told me that there was no one to replace me where I was so it was going to be April or May before I could transfer!

Really?!

 

So.

I decided to put up a stink about it.  A loud stink.  An "everyone in the ICU bugging my manager about welshing on a deal for me" stink.

And it worked!  On January 24 I will be in the ICU.  On nights.

Oh well, I got half of what I wanted, and it's a start to get me off the lousy unit I'm working on now, yay me!

 

Other than that, my birthday is in 9 days, (who's counting?), and I have almost 2 weeks off from work to go skiing and hang out in hot springs, and I can't wait!


Remember, it's just a ride.