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Shit, ants have struck! I was picking up the cats' food dish in the big room this morning to replenish it, and I see that our long streak of being free from ant-invasions is officially broken. The plate was swarming with them. Grocery day is Friday: it is a good time to get some new ant-baits, along with some cockroach baits while we are at it. It has been a couple of years since I have had to bother with that chore. I marveled at it, was happy to catch the good break. Alas, now it is time to shake off my complacency and be a little less lazy.
Apr. 22nd, 2015
Child-Free
Apr. 22nd, 2015 08:40 amA little discussion on women being less likely to favor having children in their lives. This is not exactly cutting edge, but it is well expressed.
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In other words, she's saying, an existential shift in the way educated humans approach living—a switch from living for the (possibly celestial) future to enjoying the present—has led humans to think much more carefully about having children, since the drawbacks tend to outweigh the benefits. “As we age,” she writes, “we are apt to look back on our pasts and question, not, did I serve family, God, and country, but did I ever get to Cuba, or run a marathon? Did I take up landscape painting? Was I fat? We will assess the success of our lives in accordance not with whether they were righteous, but whether they were interesting and fun.”
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Not having children isn’t selfish. Not having children is a perfectly rational and reasonable response given that humans are essentially parasites on the face of a perfectly lovely and well-balanced planet, ploughing through its natural resources, eradicating its endangered species, and ruining its most wonderful landscapes. This might sound misanthropic, and it is, but it is also true.
-- Sophie Gilbert, "Why Women Aren't Having Children" in The Atlantic
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In other words, she's saying, an existential shift in the way educated humans approach living—a switch from living for the (possibly celestial) future to enjoying the present—has led humans to think much more carefully about having children, since the drawbacks tend to outweigh the benefits. “As we age,” she writes, “we are apt to look back on our pasts and question, not, did I serve family, God, and country, but did I ever get to Cuba, or run a marathon? Did I take up landscape painting? Was I fat? We will assess the success of our lives in accordance not with whether they were righteous, but whether they were interesting and fun.”
[...]
Not having children isn’t selfish. Not having children is a perfectly rational and reasonable response given that humans are essentially parasites on the face of a perfectly lovely and well-balanced planet, ploughing through its natural resources, eradicating its endangered species, and ruining its most wonderful landscapes. This might sound misanthropic, and it is, but it is also true.
-- Sophie Gilbert, "Why Women Aren't Having Children" in The Atlantic
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That was a good hard rain, but I don't think it lasted much longer than an hour, and yet our lawns are ponds again. I guess this shows that the ground is still saturated from last week's rains. So, the cats will be in for a while again, and we will get to enjoy those midnight feline serenades.
Great, I only recently discovered that Jodie Foster's "The Accused" is available on NetFlix, and now I learn that they are losing the movie on May first. Well, I'm glad I got the warning. I'll be sure to watch the pinball scene a few times in the next week, try to get my fill. I just now gave it a quick viewing; it's the first time I have watched it in high-definition - very nice! Moreover, I am pretty sure that I never got to see quite as much hip-pounding in the cable airings of the movie. I am going to hate to lose it. At least "Irreversible" should continue to be available.