Brief Blog Semi-Break/ Shameless Self- Promotion Opportunity/ Open Thread

I'm currently in major manic overwhelmed overdrive, trying to get "Best Erotic Comics 2009" (which is already late) out the door and to the printers by the end of the week. I thought I'd have time and energy to at least put up some stuff from the archives, but it turns out that these last couple/few days I pretty much have time and energy to collapse in front of Rachel Maddow (no, not literally, more's the pity) and then go to bed. I will definitely be back on the blog by Sunday or Monday; hopefully before that.

So in the meantime -- talk amongst yourselves! Let's make this an open thread and a shameless self- promotion opportunity. If you have a blog or some other interesting endeavor, let us know about it. If you wanna yak about something, yak away. I'll be checking in periodically to make sure nothing's catching on fire -- and I'll be back soon.

Comments

[Zorb the Sacred Crocodile]

Well, okay then, come and worship me at my on-line mystic shrine at http://www.geocities.com/zorbthesacredcrocodile/ and perhaps recite the psalm found at http://www.geocities.com/ornerypest/zorb.html

[Jennifurret]

I was raised in a nonreligious family, and there were points in my life where I felt like I needed to "try" to believe in something. I specifically talk about my experience trying out prayer here: http://blaghag.blogspot.com/2009/04/attempts-at-theism-prayer.html

[Christine]

I wouldn't mind having some people drop by the blog who aren't Xians offended at my post about the plane crash that killed several children and the Christian Wired News response. Most amount of traffic my little blog's ever seen came from that post, which I must say is a bit sad. So please, come visit me here.

[cognitive dissident]

Has the book's release date been pushed back? It's been in my online shopping cart for a while, and I was about to pre-order it.

(Sorry, no self-promotion this time...maybe later.)

[Greta Christina]

Has the book's release date been pushed back?

Yes. We're now looking at June or July.

[Sarah]

*Really* looking forward to getting some more Greta Christina in print. And if anyone fancies dropping my media/godlessness/arts blog, you'll be welcomed with a big kiss and a hug!

[TheDeviantE]

Yay. I recently got X as a birthday present (haven't had time to read it), so yay to more Greta Christina related publications!

Onto the shameless self-promotion. Two things. I'm a trans/genderqueer (atheist) poly queer guy and I write about this and many other things over at my blog: The Deviated Norm
It's a fairly new blog (about 10 posts) and I get thrilled when people stop by and read and comment, so you should.
Also, I make music in a band. Sadly we only have a couple songs recorded, but one of them is a 9 minute song about VEGETABLE CLASS WARFARE ON THE HIGH SEAS. I'm not shitting you. (No, it wasn't inspired by "veggietales") So you should check out The Little Inquisition

that's all folks!!!

[TheDeviantE]

Apparently my html linking skills require work, the addresses for The Deviated Norm and The Little Inquisition are:
www.thedeviatednorm.blogspot.com
and
www.thesixtyone.com/littleinquisition

[Natalie]

I don't have a blog, but I do have a problem with losing stuff. I've lost my flashdrives three times in the past six months. My bag with my workout clothes vanished over spring break. Just today, my bike got stolen. Any advice on how to avoid losing things would be greatly appreciated...:) Have a good day!

[Devysciple]

Hey Greta (just mistyped 'Great' instead *g*)

I have no self-promotion, but I do have a question that crossed my mind the other day (and though I have some gay people in my circle of acquaintances, I don't have the guts to ask them face to face):

If you are homo- or bisexual, do you get turned on by your own primary and/or secondary sexual characteristics?

If you don't want to answer this (rather personal) question, that's perfectly fine with me. I was just curious, and my mind works in mysterious ways... *makes woo-ish noises*

[Polina]

Good luck surviving the last gasp, Greta! And yay for shameless self-promotion opportunities!

I've got a blog over at http://the-leaky-pen.blogspot.com where I post poetry and sometimes fiction. It's on hiatus right now while I'm in Argentina, but anyone wanting to check it out and give me some criticism or advice would be really welcome.

[lunalelle]

If you are homo- or bisexual, do you get turned on by your own primary and/or secondary sexual characteristics?

That's actually an interesting question. I'd have to say no. Everything I'm attracted to is very much not me, aside from gender. Although I think my genitalia is kind of pretty. ...

On a more self-promoting angle, I wrote a post on finding comfort in the random as an alternative to the comfort argument for religion here: http://sowingseedsinwinter.blogspot.com/2009/03/finding-comfort-in-random.html

And on a squee-ful note, my essay on the movie Saw got accepted to Dark Scribe Press's slasher genre anthology. Whoo! I'm a girl of limited interests, and horror is one of them. And I love Dark Scribe Press's vision. So in general, I'm excited as a bunny.

[Buffy]

I'm sure most of you are familiar with "eightmaps", which the anti-gay crowd has been rending its garments over for a few months now. My wife and I have been working on something that will make them go apoplectic--a fully searchable database of Proposition 8 donors . It will eventually expand to include other anti-gay initiatives as well as people/businesses who support equality. We want to give LGBT people alternatives to buying goods and services from bigots. It's time we stop funding our own oppression.

We anticipate the initial phase will be launched this weekend at which time we'll announce it on both of our blogs and put the word out to everyone we know. We're also seeking other bloggers/Webmasters who'd be willing to promote the site with posts and/or links in their sidebars.

[Gregory]

I have a new blog, skin hunger, dealing with my personal approach/journey/exploration of godless living, atheism, and the naturalistic worldview. Stop on by!

[Gregory]

and I'm also a nerd who should've given the URL: skinhunger.wordpress.com. Now you can come by! :)

[The Uncredible Hallq]

New Book: UFOs, Ghosts, and a Rising God: Debunking the Resurrection of Jesus.

Details here: http://www.uncrediblehallq.net/works/

[Frozen Summers]

I have a few things....

• FREE MUSIC, I write and release a song every week (like JoCo) @ Chaotimusic.com


• My long running but hardly read blog


• I'm also on the facebook

[Anthroslug the Much Put-Upon]

I am continuing to keep a blog about working as an archaeologist in the environmental consulting industry, as well as whatever the hell happens to be on my mind at any given moment:

www.anthroslug.blogspot.com

Thanks, Greta!

[Pi Guy]

Off-topic (wait - there is no topic...)

The Rachel Maddow Show is the best show on any of the cable news networks. She's smart, funny, confident, a superb political analyst, and is equally adept at communicating with the guy on the street and the highfalutin, arrogant politician. I watch every night.

Did I mention that I also find her very attractive? I know, I know. She's married in Connecticut and probably wouldn't look twice at a guy like me. But a guy can dream - can't he? (My guess is that Greta would say "yes" so I'll just keep at it!)

[Rev. Wally Real]

What does gay marriage, prostitution, and drug use have in common...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJz81lAwY0M

RON PAUL!!!

[Devysciple]

@lunalelle:

Thanks for your answer. I assumed as much, because it's maybe comparable to tickling, which you can't do to yourself.
And it would be especially impratical for male homosexuals (what's the current slang expression atm, I'm no native speaker), because seeing your dick, getting turned on, getting an erection, seeing your errected dick, getting turned on even more... and so on. They would probably even forget to eat and drink if nature was working that way ;-)

I hope no one from the GLBT community has been offended by my posts. If someone from the rest of mankind was... screw you, it's like to'lly PC to offend the majority :D

[Claire B]

Devysciple: actually, yes, very much so! In fact, I've never yet had a sexual partner whose body was as appealing to me as my own is. Vain of me, I know, but there it is!

[Heidi Anderson]

My most recent blog entry was on spanking:

spanking for kids:NO

spanking for adults:HELL YES

http://thefatoneinthemiddle.typepad.com/the_fat_one_in_the_middle/2009/04/spanking-but-not-the-good-kind.html

[Heidi Anderson]

www.tinyurl.com/cksmzt

Better!

[Claire B]

Er: sorry, my post was in reply to Devysciple's earlier post, not to the one directly above it.

Just thought I'd clarify.

[Devysciple]

@Claire B

thanks for totally confusing me right now ;-)

Well, it could be that

a) you are mocking me (not very like, but at least possible) :)

b) I did not formulate my question precisely enough: Of course my private parts are most important to me, because they are the ones that give me pleasure. But, being straight, I don't get turned on seeing them. I rather get my kicks out of looking at private parts of members of the opposite sex. So I should have phrased my question something like: If you are homo- or bisexual, do you get turned on by looking at your own primary and/or secondary sexual characteristics?

c) You got my question correctly and are just different from lunalelle... Which pushes the next question in my mind: How on earth can you just take a shower?! I mean, if I saw the most sexually attractive body everytime I undressed, I certainly wouldn't waste time caressing it with water... At least not generally, more like in special places ;-)

PS: I know I am asking questions on a very private topic. In order to avoid any misunderstandings, I suggest to any reader to take argument c) with a grain of salt (i.e. tongue-in-cheek)

And a BIG thank you to all that have already or will be answering my question(s). I owe you big time!

[Kelly]

I'm not flexible so it's kind of hard to see my parts unless I bust out a mirror.

[Sebatinsky]

Fencing in Seventeenth-Century England: A Visual Study of Joseph Swetnam's Treatise:

http://josephswetnam.wordpress.com/

Swetnam was the first Englishman to publish an instructional manual on the rapier. Swordplay in early modern England was representative of the broader reaction to the cultural influx from Italy.

[anon]

In the news, if you haven't heard about this yet -

"Flagrant anti-gay discrimination in a Canadian nursing college"

- Nursing student failed because her instructor felt that "I have to advocate for my patients, and i feel that female patients will be uncomfortable having a lesbian nurse caring for them."

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/04/flagrant_anti-gay_discriminati.php

"Gays & Lesbians don't belong in Nursing"

http://open.salon.com/blog/codeblue/2009/04/03/gays_lesbians_dont_belong_in_nursing/comment

[Claire B]

Hi Devysciple! The answer is c.

Hokay, to be more clear about this: when I'm undressed, I don't tend to look down at myself and go "mmm", just because I've got other things to do with my time, like getting ready for work or getting ready for bed or, as you point out, having a bath or whatever. I've had this body all my adult life, and like you say, I couldn't get on with just doing stuff if I was in a state of complete erotic stimulation every time I didn't happen to have clothes on.

Imagine having a really, totally hot-looking girlfriend. Now imagine you've been with her for ten or fifteen years. You don't go crazy with desire every time she undresses, because you've seen her body often enough to get used to it. But you do still find her sexy.

I think that's probably as close as I can get to making it clear how it feels for me!

[Devysciple]

Hugs and another BIG thank you to you, Claire B. (Only if you're comfortable with that, that is)

But I have to confess something: I totally get envious if someone is able to formulate their thoughts in such a pristine and crystal-clear manner. Dammit, I wish I could do that. But apparently, there's a huge gap between my mind and my fingers/mouth...

Besides that, three cheers on Greta for having such an awesome blog, and on all the commenters for widening my horizon!

[Myron]

One cannot prove something does not exist, but they can still proivde reasons/examples why they assert that something does not exist to prove it wrong. But even in the end, those examples must be examined or if they cannot be exmained then in the end it is just a personal opinion. I cannot prove God does or does not exist. Evidence I may provide may suggest that one does or does not, but in the end it is still just my opinion until it can be tested. In short, the burden of proof is on both parties who make the assertion. They must provide reasons/exmaples as to why they suggest such things.

@Christina: For me to be convinced there is no God is hard to say. I suppose I will be convinced when we all gain knowledge about our Universe to the point we can prove everything to the point of the origins of its laws. But of course I will not live to see that nor do I think humanity will live long enough to achieve that. So I guess nothing as of now can convince. Just like nothing can convince an agnostic or atheist that god does or does not exist. I will keep an open-mind though if some evidence does come along.

[Greta Christina]

Myron: Are you trying to argue that, if a hypothesis cannot be proven right or wrong with absolute 100% certainty, then therefore all hypotheses are equally likely, and it's reasonable to choose whichever one we like?

I must strongly beg to differ. Just because we can't prove or disprove something with 100% certainty doesn't mean we can't have a useful, persuasive discussion about which hypothesis is more plausible, more internally consistent, and better supported by the evidence. There is almost nothing that we can prove or disprove with 100% certainty -- there could always be evidence around the corner that we haven't seen yet -- but we can still make assertions about what is almost certainly true or not true, based on the evidence we currently have. I can and do provide evidence and arguments supporting my hypothesis that God almost certainly does not exist. Can you do the same for the hypothesis that God probably does?

I also want to ask: How do you decide which of the "not 100% disproven" religions to believe in? How can you reject the thousands upon thousands of gods that also aren't 100% disproven, and still accept the one that you believe in?

I would point out that you almost certainly don't apply this standard of proof to anything else in your life. You don't, for instance, jump out of a fourth story window simply because you can't prove with 100% certainty that invisible fairies won't carry you gently down to the ground. Given the "invisible fairies" hypothesis on the one hand, and the "plummeting to the ground" hypothesis on the other hand, you choose your actions based on which hypothesis is more plausible -- not on whether one or the other has been 100% proven or disproven. Why do you have a different standard for belief in God?

And I will also add this: If the only thing that could persuade you that God probably does not exist is humanity gaining complete and perfect knowledge about everything in the universe... then that's not exactly what I would call "keeping an open mind." Again: You don't apply that standard of evidence to anything else in your life. Why apply it to God?