An argument for birth control

"Thanks to medical science, surgery and hygeine, we have reached an incredible peak of breeding success. We have practised death control and now we must balance it with birth control. It looks very much as though, during the next century or so, we are going to have to change our sexual ways at last. But if we do, it will not be because they failed, but because they succeeded too well...

We already know that if our populations go on increasing at their present terrifying rate, uncontrollable aggressiveness will become dramatically increased. This has been proved conclusively with laboratory experiments. Gross over-crowding will produce social stress and tensions that will shatter our community organizations long before it starves us to death... If a selective attempt is made to stem the breeding flood, with certain pairs permitted to breed freely and others prevented from doing so, then this will work against the essential cooperativeness of society--the pair-bonding pattern will suffer.

To sum up then, the best solution for ensuring world peace is the widespread promotion of contraception or abortion. Abortion is a drastic measure and can involve serious emotional disturbance... Contraception is obviously preferable, and and religious or other 'moralizing' factions that oppose it must face the fact that they are engaged in dangerous war-mongering."

-Desmond Morris, 1967 in The Naked Ape

The Path

"Where are you going? What do you carry?"



[The Path] is a short horror game from my favorite indie developer ever, [Tale of Tales].

In short, it's a modern take on the Little Red Riding Hood story with gothic sensibilities. The color scheme is almost exclusively red, black, and gray. The playable characters are six sisters ranging in age from nine to nineteen, each with her own personality.



The six sisters live in the city. In turn, their mother sends them to the edge of the city to venture through the woods to their grandmother's house. The only directions given are "Go to grandmother's house. And stay on the path!"

The trailer gives a taste of the story and art, but there's no actual dialog in the game. I love the creepy music though!



Of course, the only way to complete the game is to ignore all the rules and wander the forest. Each girl has her own story and background which can be revealed as you collect and interact with objects and unlock secret rooms in grandmother's house. Most importantly, each girl has her own personal wolf. Once she meets the wolf, the girl is never the same.



The game itself takes about four hours and describes itself as a "slow game". This is apparent on several levels. Physically, the girls do not walk or run faster than a normal human. They don't move at the usual faster-than-real-life speeds that are typical of game characters. Also, the game itself doesn't have timers or puzzles or even really obstacles. The focus is on getting lost in the woods and exploring. There's also a lot of waiting to allow the girls to go through their own motions and move the action along.

As you explore, there are various creepy objects scattered around that different girls can interact with in different ways. There are also shiny flowers that the girls desire to pick (thus drawing them and you further into the forest) and six "attraction" areas. These areas are integral to the story and each girl has one that she can interact with in a special way.

There's also a neat (and scary!) mechanic where when you direct the girl to run the camera pans out, the screen blurs and darkens, and a pounding heartbeat comes to the auditory foreground. This really helps to facilitate the "lost" feeling because it's difficult to see where you're going and where you've been.

The Drama Princess AI also gives a lot of autonomy to the girls. If you get them close enough to an object they will interact with it on their own. Also, if you find yourself lost you can leave the girl alone and she will start acting nervous and afraid, attracting the Girl in White who will lead you back to the path. The idea that you have to give up control at points in the game (and wait) to progress contributes to the "slow game" feel.



What I liked most about the game was how open to interpretation the stories are. The game clearly says something about what it means to grow up, but while there is no violence or sex in the game there is possible implied sexual violence. I'm not really sure what it all says about the victimization of women and becoming a woman, but not all the wolves are men or are even human. The age of the girls definitely effect their experiences and choices. (Various interpretations of the events and wolves are discussed ad nauseum on the Tale of Tales [forums] of which I am a member.) I'd love to discuss the stories in detail but I don't want to give too much away. At any rate, I'm a big scaredy-cat so I was pretty well afraid during my first run.



The game takes about four hours to complete on the first run and has decent replay value. I found it compelling and even after owning it for about four months I still find myself ruminating over my gameplay experience.

To sum up:
[The Path]
Worth buying
$10 on [Steam] or [direct from Tale of Tales]
There's a free [demo]ish
Also available for Mac

Blueberry Garden

I'll be honest. I love weird indie games. Right now, my favorite weird indie game is Erik Svedang's platformer [Blueberry Garden].

I don't want to ruin the magic of it for you, but basically you're a flying bird man in beautifully illustrated world of berries, men wearing party hats, chickens, and oversized objects.

It's an acid trip of whimsy and relaxing game play with a killer (but simple) piano soundtrack.

Here's the trailer:


Here are some screenies from my gameplay:




I had been waiting for this game to come out since it was announced in early 2008. I was finally set to launch on Valve's [Steam] service in June but then faced more delays. It finally launched in the middle of June. I bought it within hours of release and I'm so glad! I'm totally down with the art style and the mood. And the story is simple, vaguely nonsensical, and compelling once you discover it.

This is a great little game--but let yourself play until the end of the level--you'll know when you get there.

To sum up:
[Blueberry Garden]
Worth buying
[$5 on Steam]
There's a free [demo].

By the way, there's a link to my Steam profile on the sidebar. I'll repost it here since it's relevant.

Combinations

I have never lived with a romantic partner--until now. I've lived with men and women--and almost six years with my hetero-lifemate, D--in single and mixed gender apartments. In general, boys are messier but it might be an age thing. We were all young then.

Anyway, [Phil] and I have been in the process of moving in together. It's exciting! I hate moving and he hates cleaning, so it's a perfect storm of procrastination. I have all my essentials moved in and set up--pets, plants, electronics, clothes, my bathroom--as well as some odds and ends. I can't wait to start decorating and making it feel like "our" place and not "Phil's man cave/bachelor pad".

We've been neighbors and it's been super convenient to pop back and forth whenever I felt like it, but the stress of maintaining two residences kind of wears down on you. While I did spend a lot of time at my own place, I can count the number of times I've slept in my own bed in the last three years.

I guess I'm just really excited about it. I can't wait to paint! The walls are really dirty and the kitchen is papered with BLUE PLAID. No lie, it's awful.

While Phil was out of the country I spent a lot of time overhauling the house so at least everything would be clean* (and it is). For example, I don't think Phil has ever cleaned his microwave.




Meanwhile I've been taking this opportunity to seriously cut down on all the junk I have. I mean, I don't really have a lot of junk but it's nice to super-simplify. If I haven't moved it to the new place by now, I probably don't need it (except all my books, those are just waiting on shelves and some art).

I think Phil is excited too because I like to clean and do laundry and I fixed all the toilets. And it's always cool to split bills with someone else!

It's a little scary too!

And D, you've been the best hetero-lifemate ever. I'll miss you even though you basically already moved out. Funny story: even though I've lived with D so long and even shared a dorm for a couple years I had never seen her breasts. It wasn't until a couple months ago when I was helping her try on wedding dresses that I finally saw them. We were apparently very modest around each other.

*Clean in the sense that everything is clean except the third bedroom where I stored all of Phil's junk that I didn't know what to do with it or that he hasn't touched in a couple years and I don't know why he still has it as well as a dozen loads of laundry including brand new shirts.

Garlic as a DIY yeast infection remedy

If reading about vaginas is not your thing then this isn't going to be a good post for you. It's going to be part of a post I'm getting together on garlic for the [flower blog].

A few days ago I came down with a yeast infection. If you've ever had one you KNOW what it is. If you're a guy or are not familiar with yeast infections, they're extremely common. It's just an overgrowth of the Candida albicans yeast that normally lives in the vagina. I won't go into detail about the numerous causes and symptoms of yeast infections. The point is that while they aren't a huge deal they're very uncomfortable. Over the counter antifungal treatments (like Monistat) are usually some concentration of miconazole nitrate as a cream or suppository. For most women, including myself, these treatments are safe, quick and effective. A doctor may also prescribe fluconazole creams.

I'm open to trying herbal remedies whenever I can because 1) it's cool and 2) I might be able to add an efficacy anecdote to my site. A friend whose knowledge I trust said I should look up more info on using garlic as a treatment. While I've been perfectly happy with Monistat I like to shy away from using synthetic chemicals when I can (again, it's not because I don't think they're safe, it's just nice to do some cheaper and more fun!).

Anyway, I found a protocol written by a certified nurse-midwife for using a clove of garlic at [Midwifery Today]. (I have strong opinions about the loss of women's herbal knowledge but I don't want to spout them off here. If you want to know more start with John Riddle's history [Eve's Herbs].)

So, on to the interesting part where I shoved a clove of garlic up my lady bits.

I bought a bulb of fresh "organic" garlic for about fifty cents from the grocery store. When I got home, I peeled one of the cloves and scored it lengthwise a few times with a knife to increase the surface area a little. According to the article, scoring or cutting the clove in half will increase the strength of the dose but you can leave it whole.



After that, just insert the clove like a tampon. If you've used tampons without an applicator it's pretty much exactly like that. If you're squeamish about poking it up there or have long nails you can push it most of the way in while you're sitting and then stand up. The vaginal muscles will help pull it upward.

You can't lose the clove "up there" because it will just stop if it gets to the cervix. The vagina isn't nearly as big as we tend to think it is. You'll probably be able to feel the clove by running a finger around the vaginal wall. If you are nervous about losing it you could always run a string through it for easy removal.

If you like doing it the old fashioned way you can also just bear down and expel it or pull it out with a hooked finger. It pops right out for me but I'm used to using a [Diva cup]. It will also probably slip out while you poop. I wore an unscented panty liner during the whole process to catch any discharge but there wasn't really any.

Some women report being irritated by the garlic; I was not. I wouldn't have known it was in there except that my symptoms were subsiding and my mouth tasted like garlic.

Yes, I could taste the garlic. Everything I ate tasted of garlic. My breath smelled like Italian food. It was kinda gross but VERY COOL. I can see why the CNM recommended doing this at night if that kind of thing bothers you.

Obviously this is a "try at your own risk" deal (and probably a bad idea if you're allergic to garlic or your symptoms don't subside) but it worked for me. Using a garlic suppository seems at least as effective as Monistat 7-day cream based on how quickly the symptoms were relieved. It was much less messy than the cream but made me smell like I was warding off vampires.

Verdict: on hold for a few more days to make sure the symptoms don't return.

Why would I write about something like this? If we don't talk about our bodies we'll continue to lose control over them. I refuse to be embarrassed about my physiological processes (even though I sometimes still am!) and hope to share information.

Spring is here!

I have my [April Flora photoset] from the JC Raulston Arboretum up! It's over sixty photos that I took with [Philihp's] Nikon d40. Icarus, [Michael] and Sterlic came along as well.
Do you have any of these plants blooming in your general vicinity? Some highlights:






There was also a [new post on mistletoe] up on the flower blog. Mistletoe berries look like semen according to the Celts.

Oh, and here's a picture of Icarus in a dogwood tree:

NC Renn Faire!

Today my hetero-lifemate and I went to the [NC Renn Faire] at its new location in some Wake Forest peoples' backyards.

It was so fun! I love the Faire anyway and it was great to get to wear my princess dress. Pictures? Yes.



I made a new friend! He tried to teach me to juggle but I wasn't quite picking it up. I ate Friar's Fish and Chips, an apple turnover, and a glass of some kind of ale. At the Tir na Nog stage I heard two different renditions of "Old Dunn Cow," which was great. I love Faire performers!

There was also a woman selling anoles at the "Baby Dragon Orphanage" and a guy who made a chainmaille harness for his ferret. There were also tumblers, belly dancers, and magicians plus all the usual vendors.

We did get trapped at the Faire for a while because of the rain and it was pretty muddy. But no matter! You can't stop me from wanting to look at all the shinies over and over.

The Faire continues on weekends until next Sunday.

I leave you with a video of me, my friend, and my sweet hat:

Ikariam

[Ikariam] is a free persistent, browser-based MMO game. It's fun! I'm on the Zeta server.

It's set in an ancient Greek-ish world where you build little cities and can colonize, pillage, and trade with neighboring islands. It's kind of in the same vein as the Civilization franchise.

March Flora Watch

From [madisonsflowers.com]:

I took a walk this past Saturday around N.C. State's campus, J.C. Raulston Arboretum, and my own Gorman Street to see what's what right now in the landscape. I'm not sure if we're safely out of danger from frost yet between the alternating snow and eighty-degree weather, but it's definitely spring. I saw lots of yellow and white blossoms plus the beginnings of new leaves of a lot of the shrubs and some of the trees. By the way, the stinky-but-pretty (and overplanted, frankly) bradford pears ([Prunus calleryana 'Bradford']) are also in bloom so that's probably the source of any random smells of decay.

Highlights are up at [madisonsflowers.com] but here's a preview:

A Crisis of Credit

A simplified and well animated explanation of the credit crisis.


The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.