Under the Skin

"I just love Frozen .  It is the first movie from Disney that actually empowers women."  Raise your hands if you've heard that before.  Okay, now put your hands down.  Raise you hand if you actually, honestly believe that.  Well, you shouldn't and here's why:  It's not true.  The qualification that people usually use for this assessment is that Disney movies used to tell women that they needed to be saved by men.  First of all, I don't think that's the only way you can empower women, but that aside, here's the truth:  It's not the first movie to do that.  I present six Disney movies that taught that message.  Some of them long ago. These aren't the only six that have strong female characters, mind you.  They're just the ones where the girls saves her own day--or even everyone else's too. Now, I'm not saying that Frozen has nothing to offer.  I actually enjoyed the movie pretty well .  But I don't think it is anythi...

I once again write about my biggest Mormon pet-peeve--actually my two biggest Mormon pet-peeves.  First, something that I've learned in Utah, is that there is way too much holier-than-thou going on in some parts of the Church.  I still love being a member of the LDS Church, and I still believe that it is a perfect Church, but that doesn't mean that everyone always does what they should.  I grew up outside of Utah.  So, I was completely awestruck by the attitude towards non-Mormons that Mormons have.  I just want to shake them and and say, "How could you do this?  How could you, whose ancestors were burned out of four states, be so terrible towards others?  Not fifty years ago, that was us.  And how can you now do that to others?"  I have sat, listening to the thoughts about diversity from honestly good people thinking, "Holy Cow.  You are that Mormon I used to claim didn't exist!" Let me remind all that the hymn "In Humility Our Savior...

“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”  In a continuation of books that I somehow didn't read in junior high school or high school, I review The Scarlet Letter .  I could have read this one in junior high, but my mother chose The Crucible over it when we were reading Puritanical guilt-analysis in homeschool.  I don't resent her for this.  The Crucible is a fantastic book as well that I needed to read.  But I don't regret my choice this past week to read The Scarlet Letter .  Just a note on finding a book cover for the picture:  people the last line is "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."  So, why are so many people making her in a red dress with a black A?  And why would you ever make the A on her dress black?  The book is called "The SCARLET Letter." For those who don't know the basic plot: ...

The other day, I made a dinner from a website called Recipe Roulette.  I find this website fantastic because I love to cook--especially new things-- but I am not very creative. Unless I'm having a particularly creative day, I can't think of anything to cook.  So, Recipe Roulette tells me what to cook.  Randomly. Now in order to understand this story, you must understand something about me.  If I could pick any nationality on earth to be based solely on their cuisine it would be Greek. I love the taste of olives.  And olive oil.  And herbs are one of the best things ever.  Their cheeses are fantastic.  I like fish.  Pita bread is fantastic.  And I like eggplant.  And zucchini. And basically everything Greek food stands for.  I randomly got this Greek pasta salad with feta and artichokes and the most amazing herb oil ever.  Smelling it cooking was a form of heaven.  As I tasted it, I thought, "This is a spiritual ex...

Today's New Lessons from the Old Testament is me not knowing what to say about it.  Because I struggle with today's topic.  Yesterday, I finished Esther, which is one of my favorite Old Testament stories, but it's hard as well.  Because as anyone familiar with the books of the bible knows, after Esther comes Job.  And Job is a hard story for me. Why? Because the way that it is written, Satan gets under the skin of God.  It seems like God is always saying, "See?  Job loves me."  And then Satan says, "He love you now.  Take x away and he'll stop being good." And every time, God gives gets self-conscious and experiments with Satan's words.  And I know that's a wrong interpretation.   Because God doesn't get self-conscious.  And God doesn't give in to Satan. But I don't know what the right interpretation is.  Help?

 “How wonderful to be alive, he thought. But why does it always hurt?”  I got into Russian literature in college.  In my Freshman year, I needed to take a class that satisfied the "Letters" GE requirement.  There were a lot of interesting literature classes, but I had to choose one.  My brother had recently married a then-Russian-citizen.  We both enjoyed reading, but we didn't have a lot of shared reading experience.  So, I decided to take Russian Novels. I was one of two people who was not a Russian major, and one of two people who did not serve their mission in Russian.  And no, the other person in each of those groups was not the same person.  So, in terms of understanding the Russian culture and Russian world, I was behind the game.  But I loved that class.  The professor loved Russian literature, and he made us love it.  And, even if I was behind, I got one of the highest grades in the class, so I can't complain too...

There is a Twitter movement called #fatkini wherein not-very-in-shape women take pictures of themselves wearing bikinis.  It is being touted as a fantastic movement of self-love and combating bad body image.  You will not being seeing me on the #fatkini.  And here's why. I do not wear bikinis.  It is not because I am ashamed of the way my body looks.  It is not because I am afraid of what people would think of my body.  It's because I love the way my body looks and believe that it is too beautiful for such careless treatment. Modesty, for me, is a complex issue.  But the number one aspect, I believe, is that our bodies are the image of God.  They are the epitome of beauty.   They are genius.  And to say that if you love your body you have to show it off is ridiculous.  There is beauty is silence and respect for beauty in guarding that beauty.  When I take off my clothes to shower, I am not ashamed of what I see.  I lov...

Remember when I implied that I had lost some notes for a blog post?  It was the OTP post.  I found them yesterday.  There were some OTPs on my original notes that I didn't include in my post.  Most of them aren't completely necessary as I found others to take their place.  But there is one that needed to be added. In the Cross-Fiction Category Waldo and Carmen Sandiego This OTP is so popular that there are cartoons written about their relationship, pictures depicting their baby and more.  They have a shared love of being invisible.  And maybe the innocent tourist in Waldo would temper the thievery.  Who knows?  But it's a connection like none before it. So, there you go!

I will get back into the blogging with an easier-to-write post.  A SicFic!  This book is one that I finished right before leaving for New York for my first trip in July, but I was procrastinating writing its review and scoring.  I'm not sure why. Hemophilia fiction (if that is a thing) will always be influenced by the wide-expanse of Romanov-stories.  And that's not a bad thing.  Hey, the Russian Revolution and the Romanov connection to hemophilia is how I found what I believe to be my divinely-given mission in life:  hemophilia research.  But sometimes it just leads to cheap fodder for bad novels.  And I think this might be one of those.  The book itself was interesting and engaging.  The story was fun.   Until it started time-traveling.  Yes, you heard me right: time-traveling.  Then it got improbable and also showed that the author has approximately zero science understanding and just thinks they do. Also, why wo...

I was in a crazy place all of July.  Last night was the first night I had slept in my bed since June.  Other than that, I was either traveling, or I was working.  I find it strange.  When I haven't blogged for a bit, I go back to the keyboard with nothing.  Then, I just post something, and all of the sudden, I obtain all of these ideas.  I have lists and lists of ideas and they keep coming. When I've been blogging, but when I haven't, I look down at my list and don't even know where to start any of them.  So, I have to get the juice running again.  Think of this as my pump-priming post. I guess this is sort of like my creative writing.  When I sit down, I sometimes have to write something silly and garbage-like before I can get going with the good stuff. Pump primed.  I'll be back.