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Here are (unseasonal) pics of our Christmas tree, plus a cat photo thrown in for good measure:

Sometimes I feel like the weirdest mix of the masculine and feminine, and I think that this collision is illustrated in my blog reading, which is split between content that’s aimed specifically at women and other content that’s aimed pretty much at men. I mean, this is what I’ve read today:

Cute Overload
All my knitting sites, including Mason Dixon knitting
All my general craft sites, headlined by the Craft Magazine blog

Then there’s BoingBoing, not totally masculine, but getting there.

And then, what’s this? My new blogroll category, infrastructure! Here’s where I have completely gone over the edge into Boy Country:

Telstar Logistics, the blog about “The Technology of Land, Air, Sea, Space”, etc. I spent a few happy minutes listening to their audio of a pissed-off JFK ground traffic controller trying to figure out who’s supposed to be going where, when. Awesome!

There’s aslo gCaptain (”for mariners, by mariners”), from which I followed a link today to Popular Mechanics. They had an infographic about a container ship captain.

Man, it’s not that I’m a boy, it’s that I’m a complete, 50/50 boy/girl hybrid. Are other people like this? I can think of one friend, I guess, who’s similar (points if you can self-identify, person!). But it seems like an anomaly in our culture. Guess I should just enjoy what I enjoy, but it creates a bit of a cultural disconnect.

This makes me remember a craft project in which I actually brought together these two sides of myself: I made an embroidery based on an architectural drawing by Robert Mallet-Stevens:

Now I want to create more things like this, and bring together male and female!

OK, I couldn’t resist. Even though I’m avoiding the movie like the plague, I liked the Dark Materials books a lot, and now there’s this cool web toy where you can learn what your daemon is, and then your friends can weigh in! SO - do you agree that I’m an osprey?

http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/?669571

Oh shit.

The shame!!

Here’s a shot of Elm Bank in Wellesley, where I went swimmin in the Charles. Can you imagine anything nicer?

And a little bonus, here’s a funny sign I saw on the door of the Children’s room at Cambridge Public Library:

Am I reading my stats aright? Do I have German readers? Are you native Germans or ex-pats? As a 5/8 German myself, I offer a shout-out to you in the form of some traditional German handcrafts:

Image curtesy of Black Forest Gifts, where I’m hoping to do a lot of shopping soon! My family collected tons of Wendt & Kuhn and other Erzgebirge when I was a kid, so I have a real soft spot for it.

Anyways, greetings, Germans, and how the heck did you get here in the first place?

Obviously I revealed my email address somehow and now, oh now, I’m deleting dozens and dozens of penis-enlargement emails a day. I can’t stand it any more! What does this? Was it Craftster, some retail site, what? For a while my favorite subject line was, “I practically choke on my boyfriend’s penis”, or, “my mouth is tiny and my boyfriend’s pecker is HUGE”. My God, this is supposed to sell penis enlargement pills? The fact that you can choke someone with your dick?? GOD. I’m so sick of the whisper-level misogyny in this culture.  

At least I’ve picked up a new term for the male anatomy: banger. As in, “my banger is so huge now, thanks to these marvelous pills”. 

M, if you read this, can you help me figure out a solution (using Squirrelmail) that will not involve me changing my email address?

I’ve read two stories today that have made me angry:

First, Salon’s story about Tenet, Bush, and WMDs

Second, Michael Righi’s tale of being arrested for not showing his receipt at Circuit City.

Not much I feel I can do about the first, other than be steaming mad. But I’ll really consider not stopping for “loss prevention” agents the next time I exit a big-box store.

This is the mascot for the American Liver Foundation’s Football Walk for Liver Wellness. I’m sure this is a great cause, BUT. What is a football walk? And this little football guy is really weird-looking. At least, he was when I saw him on the T this morning. Now he looks more normal, but I SWEAR, in the version on the train, he was not carrying a little football, he was carrying a liver! Totally weird, man. Then again, maybe I was just reaaaly tired. If anyone has seen these ads, please tell me it really was a little liver being carried by an antropomorphic football.

This reminds me of another mascot that gets me really weirded out: the Town Faire tire guy.

He’s a freaking tire! I can’t look at this without thinking about him rolling over onto his face…

OK - first truly random post!