Delayed Gift Guide to follow shortly (or by next Sunday)! In the mean time, enjoy this video of a very surprised kitty!
Oops, Busy Weekend
Ho-Ho-Holiday Gift Guide
So, because work has been a whirlwind for me this past week, I haven’t had time to think about much else or pay attention to what’s gone on in the world since Thanksgiving. As a result, I was at a real loss for what to write about this week, other than “Hehe, sorry guys, I’ve been really busy, no post this week” with a video of that surprised kitty attached.
Luckily for you, I put my thinking cap on and realized that, hey, it’s December! And it being December means that it’s finally appropriate to start talking/thinking/stressing/getting excited about Christmas (not that this hasn’t been happening since the week before Halloween in the real world). So, because I absolutely love to give gifts, I thought, what could be better for some December posts than a couple installments of a gift guide to kick off your holiday shopping?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hope you had a great holiday weekend! I know I did – that’s why there’s no real post this week.
So when you’re done gobbling down your leftover turkey, here’s some food for thought for next week – what did you think of Adam Lambert’s much talked about American Music Awards performance? Do you think if it was a female pop star like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga giving the same performance, it would have been news at all? Above is an interview with Lambert about the performance on CBS’s the Early Show – I think he makes a great point!
What. The. Hell.
So, if you’ve even breathed next to me in the past week, you’ve probably had the pleasure of hearing how unhappy I am with the new breast and cervical cancer screening guidelines issued by the US Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) and  American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) in the past week.
The new breast cancer screening guidelines came first, with a recommendation to start regular mammograms a decade later than previously recommended, at age 50, and less often, at once every two years. Oh yeah, and they recommended that doctors should stop teaching women to self examine themselves on a regular basis.
Excuse me for the colloquialism of my generation, but – WTF?
The reason for these new guidelines being, of course, that the USPSTF’s research indicates that the benefits of cancer screening before the age of 50 do not outweigh the harms – that is, the anxiety and inconvenience regular testing gives women.
What???
I’m sorry, is this implying that the anxiety caused by awaiting test results that reveal you may or may not have cancer is actually a greater harm than having undetected cancer itself?
And sorry, another question – would you rather examine your breasts yourself regularly, find a suspicious lump, see a doctor about it, and find out it was nothing? Or would you rather never examine your breasts yourself and when you see a doctor a year later, find out you have a malignant tumor in your breast? Which would cause you more anxiety, just out of curiosity? And would you have considered the first scenario an “inconvenience”?
Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in the world, but it is also one of the most treatable with early detection. To remove the possibility of early detection – even if statistics show that breast cancer is less likely to occur in women aged 40-49 – is completely ridiculous. Throwing the alleviation of anxiety idea out the window (which, by the way, is totally patronizing), what could possibly be the benefits of such a recommendation?
Foregoing the Period
Look, I believe that women should revel in, appreciate, and never, ever be scared of or disgusted by their periods just as much as the next hairy feminist. I think the things I’ve written advocating the use of reusable menstrual products attest to that.
However, do I feel that life without my period would be easier? Hell yes.
Some women take issue with the fact that newer forms of birth control are being marketed to reduce or eliminate completely the number of periods you get. I can certainly understand the resulting feelings of offense – if you are someone who greatly values your monthly menstrual cycle and feel it really empowers you as a woman, being told it’s not medically necessary may not make you feel great.
But women are not defined solely by their periods, and should not be judged by whether or not they have them. Plenty of women have irregular cycles that limit the number of periods they get in a year, and plenty of women don’t have the internal equipment necessary to generate menstrual blood. This doesn’t make them any less womanly or empowered.
So I guess my question is, why shouldn’t we get our periods?
A Refresher on Why This is Called Cephaloblog
Because I LOVE giant squid (a type of cephalopod)!
So, you can see why I’d be excited that, in one of the coolest things to happen to me since Kubodera got video of a LIVE giant squid right before Christmas in 2006*, a photographer from National Geographic has captured photos of an adult female sperm whale with the remains of a 30-foot giant squid in her mouth, near the Pacific Ocean’s surface off of the Bonin Islands in Japan.
The observations of the group of five adult whales and one calf not only reveal that sperm whales do, in fact, actively hunt and consume giant squid, but that they also possibly use these catches to train their babies to do the same.
The photographer, Tony Wu, said the whales kept diving in unison. “It seemed as if the adult whales were trying to teach the baby to dive and also to eat squid.”
My old buddy Steve O’Shea**, who is a passionate and devoted giant squid expert (and is likely peeing his pants over the discovery), confirms this and attests to the rareness of these photos.
Now, for a squid lover like me, of course a certain sadness accompanies these photos. I like to imagine the giant squid kicking the sperm whales ass, or at least putting up a hell of a fight (and who knows, maybe he did) but the reality is that giant squid are eaten by sperm whales all the time. Finding their beaks in the bellies of beached sperm whales is what helped to prove that they actually did exist and weren’t just mythical sea monsters for so long.
Oh, that and I’ve seen plenty of photos of dead giant squid. It’s the photos of live ones that are really intriguing!
Continue reading “A Refresher on Why This is Called Cephaloblog”
The Triumphant and Tentacled Return of Cephaloblog
Cephaloblog is back and better than ever with a NEWLY REVAMPED posting schedule (as in, I WILL be posting). Every Sunday starting today, there will be a freshly inked (heh) post. So if you (used to) like what you read, come back for more, every week!
To kick off my first week back, since probably the least number of people will read this post considering my disappearance off the face of the blogosphere four months ago, I’ll take this opportunity to be a crazy cat lady.
Continue reading “The Triumphant and Tentacled Return of Cephaloblog”
No Doubt About It…
…I still love No Doubt. I have loved them since I was 8 years old and first heard “Spiderwebs” in my dad’s pickup truck and he pressed a $5 bill into my little hand and told me to go buy the single. And I have continued to love them throughout the years of eclectic albums, Gwen’s solo career, and my Reel Big Fish and English Beat phases.
So I was thrilled to be able to see them live for the second time in my life last week in Darien Center, NY with my little sister. We had amazing seats, and I am lucky I brought my camera along (and that they were allowed – back in the old days when I was an avid concert goer I used to have to hide my camera in my bra!) so that I was able to capture some of it to share and remember.
After the jump are some of my favorite shots that I got from the concert (click the thumbnails to enlarge). I’m embarrassed to admit that they’re mostly of Gwen – and I even managed to snag a paparazzo-esque photo of little Kingston too!
There’s also a video that I put together of clips from different songs throughout their set – bear with the audio quality, it’s better in some spots than others. You can download the original video file here, if you’d like to view it larger.
Enjoy – do well, and doubt not!
Only 3 Days Left! – MarriageNY.com
A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure (and admittedly, stress – it was a last minute project) of designing this newsletter for the Central New York Chapter of the NYCLU.
As mentioned in the newsletter, MarriageNY.com is a really great resource for those who want to make an impact on New York’s senators and help to get the Marriage Fairness Bill passed.
There are only 3 days in the legislature session left – if you haven’t already, please call or write to your senator now and tell them that you believe in marriage equality. You can also show your support for the Marriage Fairness Bill on Twitter and Facebook.
Happy Father’s Day!
In honor of Father’s Day this Sunday I thought I’d re-post a piece I wrote that my old friends Em & Lo published last year when they were still blogging at Daily Bedpost. To both of my dads – Dad and Tom, and to all of the other feminist fathers out there – Happy Father’s Day!
When I was little, my father read me a book from his childhood, Friday the Arapaho Indian by A.M. Anderson. I heard the “true story” of a young Native American girl named Friday and her historical adventures. But if you’ve ever read Anderson’s book, you’ll know what I discovered when I was much older and my dad confessed the truth: Friday the Indian was a boy…