A Christmas break in Haikus

I'm home for Christmas;

Working at the Purple Cow;

Hey, I need the cash.

Waiting for my grades;

Hoping for straight A's again;

Professors are slow.

Looking forward to

Another semester of

Good philosophy.

Life lesson #45819567

Owning mistakes and self-deprecation are not mutually inclusive.

It would have been nice to figure this out sooner.

Babies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aCZUb_dUGA&feature=popt00us14

Doesn't this look adorable?! And it looks so well-made too. I can't wait for it to come out.

I've been thinking a lot lately about babies. I wrote my term paper for my Philosophical Writing class on the medicalization of childbirth, and a few of my friends/family have recently had babies/are pregnant. I also think that being in Provo has definitely heightened my maternal instinct. I was once very anti-having babies. But it seems now that there are so many resources available for women to have kids and be good moms and go to graduate school and have a career. Honestly, I'm kind of looking forward to it.

Worth causing a stir?

So when I need to go to the Wilk and I'm south of it, I usually shortcut through the bookstore. I usually walk a little slower past the books just to see if anything will catch my eye, and there's one book that, every time I pass by it, makes me kind of uncomfortable.

It's written by an LDS author, and (put most simply) it's about a woman in an abusive relationship. But the cover is what gets me. This book is being sold by glorifying a scared woman with a man's hand covering her mouth. Perhaps I'm oversensitive, and perhaps maybe the publishers of this book aren't sensitive enough. I would like to think that a story about a woman in a violent relationship would employ a more empowering cover--representing her freeing herself from that relationship. But no. This publishers use the actual violent aspect of the relationship as the "good" part, the part that will sell books.

But here's the thing. I'm all about spreading awareness about domestic violence. I think women in bad situations can connect with characters, even fictional characters, in similar situations and find empowerment. I'm sure reading this book may help some woman find a way out of her violent relationship. But the cover. The cover.

So I'm considering writing a letter to the BYU Bookstore and the publishers of the book. To the bookstore: pull the book. To the publishers: consider printing it with a different cover.

What do you think?

INTJ

I took the Myers-Briggs test recently, and turns out I'm INTJ: Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging. Apparantly INTJ's account for 1-4% of the population, and we're characterized as "masterminds." After reading about the characteristics of INTJ's, it's kind of scary how much they describe me. Here's some bullet points about INTJ's:

• We have a quiet self-confidence, and others may see this as simple arrogance.
• We know what we know, and we know what we don't know. (I will tell you straight up that I know how systematized, formal logic works, but I couldn't tell you a thing about engineering.)
• We are typically perfectionists, but are rather pragmatic about what we're perfectionists about. We constantly ask ourselves if what we're doing is worth doing.
• We can't stand irresponsibility and slackers. If you aren't living up to your commitments, we lose a lot of respect for you. This includes both peers and superiors.
• We typically like to stay in the background in group settings, but if we see a need for better leadership, we'll step up.
• We are inherently socially unconventional, but we simulate some form of conformity to get along with people.
• We have little patience for irrational social rituals, such as small talk and flirting, and we prefer people to just make sense.
• We are typically very private and naturally impassive.
• While we have a lot of confidence in our knowledge and abilities, we have little confidence when it comes to interpersonal relationships.
• When we do connect with someone, we're willing to put a lot of time and effort into developing and fostering relationships, and are characterized by good communication skills.
• We have a low tolerance for spin and rampant emotionalism.
• We work best independently and when given creative freedom, and we enjoy spending time working out unique solutions to complex problems.
• We have a strong desire to express ourselves through our own intellectual designs.
• Because of our naturally private nature, non-INTJ's may see us as distant and reserved.