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Entries from December 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

November 27th, 2008 · by xJane · 8 Comments

Thanksgiving is a religious holiday. When the pilgrims first gathered to give thanks that they made it through their first few months in a wild new world, they weren’t thanking the natives for helping them, they were thanking their god for making the natives to help them. As a harvest festival, it has its roots […]

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Tags: Atheism · Current Events · Meditation & Prayer · Personal · Ritual

Spark: Alternate Twilight Script.

November 24th, 2008 · by John · 10 Comments

Thanks to Eric Snider, I don’t need to read the books now. Excerpt:
EDWARD: Anyhoo, these are the vampire friends I live with, the Cullens. They’ve been very eager to eat you.
BELLA: You mean meet me?
EDWARD: Meet you. What did I say?
ALICE: I’m Alice! I can see the future, but only when it’s useful to […]

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Tags: Uncategorized

Music Monday: Indie Trios with Japanese Lead Singers.

November 24th, 2008 · by John · 3 Comments

Because every day is Japanese pride day for me, I wanted to share two of my favorite pretentious indie rock bands with Japanese lead singers:
Band: Enon
Lead Singer: Yasuda Toko
Song: Mikazuki

Band: Blonde Redhead
Lead Singer: Makino Kazu
Song: Misery is Butterfly

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Tags: Japan · Music · Music Monday

Thomas Monson is Kind of a Jerk.

November 23rd, 2008 · by John · 13 Comments

My first bout of graduate school was at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (the U!).  We quickly realized that our little family wouldn’t make the rent on my stipend, so like many job-free Mormons without marketable skills, I  went down to the local Church welfare office and found me a job.  A […]

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Tags: Mormonism

In Which I Reveal What a Big Geek I am.

November 21st, 2008 · by John · 7 Comments

First of all, it was revealed recently that Barack Obama has a collection of Spider Man and Conan comics.  Do you hear that? OUR FUTURE PRESIDENT READS MARVEL!!1!  Bush strikes me as a Superman guy. (Green Party types read Vertigo and Maus and maybe Love and Rockets)
So when Madeleine Brand (who I love!) of NPR’s […]

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Tags: Comics · Movies/Hollywood

Music Monday: Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves!

November 17th, 2008 · by xJane · 3 Comments

Gah! It’s already nearly 1600 and we don’t have a Music Monday! I’m sorry, dear readers, clearly I’m distracted :-p (I usually prepare them weeks in advance). I just discovered this, but it’s in no way new. I keep a list of “Songs To Get” (Apple Mail’s Notes? le awesome), including “Sisters are Doin’ it […]

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Tags: Art · Best · Feminism · Gender · Music · Music Monday · Women

Sparks: I Couldn’t Keep Them to Myself

November 17th, 2008 · by xJane · No Comments

Obama’s first YouTube-Side Chat. I’d love to get the audio in podcast, since I have more time to listen than to watch. I’m so glad that he’s doing this (I’ve been saying for some time that the Fireside Chats need to be brought back, to increase trust and transparency; in this case, also to increase […]

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Tags: Activism · Atheism · Belief · Christianity · Church and State · Current Events · Dialog · Doubt · Education · Ethics · Feminism · Gay Rights and Queer Issues · Gender · Getting over Religion · Gods · Islam · Links · Media and Design · Mormonism · Politics · Reason · Religion · Society · Spark · Technology · Video · Web 2.0

Confronting the H8: Irvine Prop 8 Protest.

November 14th, 2008 · by John · 21 Comments

Last night, I had the privilege of marching with over 200 members of the community to protest the passage of the discriminatory Prop 8. Little disrupts the quiet of conservative Irvine outside the confines of the UC campus, and the unique nature of this event was underscored by the presence of an ABC News […]

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Tags: Activism · Gay Rights and Queer Issues · News · Politics

Meditation v. Prayer

November 13th, 2008 · by xJane · 5 Comments

I had my first final today. In preparation, I spent some time on the library’s balcony, enjoying the view, the silence, and the not-school-ness. I also spent some time in the library’s prayer room. (I also spent some time watching the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam, but this post is not about that.)
Hanging out in these […]

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Tags: Getting over Religion · Meditation & Prayer · Peace; conflict resolution. · Religion · Ritual · Spiritual Progressives

AWOL

November 12th, 2008 · by xJane · 3 Comments

I’m sorry I’ve not been posting recently, law school has finally caught up with me and consumed my life. I had to cancel the event that makes the holidays bearable for me (a goose-filled gamer fest) because I simply hadn’t the time to prepare and plan it. One of the prospective attendants told me that, […]

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