Atypical mole is atypical

See more on Know Your Meme My dermatologist just called. The pathology report came back mildly atypical. Which, for me, is probably not surprising.
Anyway, I just have to be really good about regular skin exams and protecting myself from the sun.
Yay!!!

In slightly related news, while yelling, "kiss my ass, this is a holy site" does sound very much like something I would say (and, in fact, possibly have said) I have not joined the Romney campaign. And if I said it, I was probably at an archaeological site. And joking.
Actually, I tend to make jokes about "look, sir, droids!" while pointing at all the things on site tours. Or try to get Tom to play blaster fight "pew pew pew."
And then everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.
Sigh.

Distrustful Talpid

English: European mole Talpa europaea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Does not resemble my suspicious mole.

Finally got around to seeing a dermatologist today. I'm having major cystic acne issues, wanted my vitiligo checked out, and had some moles I also wanted checked out.

The doctor was concerned about one in particular. On my left hip/ass cheek. So, shot of lidocaine in the ass and they scraped that thing right off.
Pathology report should be back in a week. Aches a little but I'll live.

So, think of my ass for the next few days. As much as I would enjoy randomly telling people I have ass cancer, because I am really that immature, I don't actually want ass cancer of any variety.

Dermatologist was otherwise very nice, no high-pressure "buy our super fancy expensive skin care products!" or anything.

So, I have stuff that will hopefully help deal with the crazy acne (one of the few downsides of my Mirena). And I need to continue to coat myself in sunscreen, which I hate because it makes me feel all coated and sticky and weird. Buhhh.

Rest in Peace, Dr. Ride

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Reading the NYT article is a wonderful refresher of how far gender equality has come and how much further we still have to go.
Example:

...politely endured reporters’ asking...whether she would wear a bra or makeup in space, whether she cried on the job...

I'm pretty sure that I would have had some really entertaining names to call people asking idiotic questions like that. Or remarkably snarky responses.
"Nope, no bra. Should make it easier for the topless astronauts gone wild video we'll be making in cooperation with Playboy to afford the next shuttle launch."
"My brain saps too much energy for me to menstruate. Should I start bleeding, though, I'll be isolated in the payload bay for 3-5 days so as not to destroy the guidance system with my scary lady mojo."
"I haven't cried on the job yet, but this press conference is getting me close to tears of rage. Lemme go put on some mascara and you can get a Tammy Faye shot."

On the flip side, women still have to deal with stupid-ass questions just like that.
Dr. Sally Ride was a driven, talented person and an inspiration to a generation of children interested in space flight, male and female.

Using My Degrees

Yesterday I used the hell out of my education.

Item 1:
Demonstrating that SpongeBob was one of the enemies the sun god had to face in the Underworld. Proof:

This is every bit as legitimate as the Abydos Helicopter bullshit.

Wollmeise--Skarabaus (Photo credit: lobstah1977)

Item 2:
Offering to build someone a pyramid in exchange for Wollmeise. I've never even touched Wollmeise. And damn do I need some of the Skarabaus colorway that I discovered when Zemanta spat out media related to this post.
Mmmmm, pretty, pretty yarns.
As soon as the person in question collects some gold, some limestone blocks, and some labor that will work for beer, bread, and onions that fancy pants yarn will be mine!

Jenny McCarthy and Space Hippies

Santa Bot space hippies (Photo credit: shoveling_ferret)

Watching The Way to Eden, best known as the space hippy episode. Given Kirk's inability to keep it in his pants, you'd think he'd welcome a bunch of free-love types, but, no, he's all "get a haircut and lose the interstellar patchouli."

Anyway, the crazy, self-centered, irresponsible leader of the hippies, Dr. Sevrin is carrying a highly virulent disease that cannot be cured but can be prevented via vaccine. He apparently decided not to get the vaccine and has been knowingly wandering the galaxy exposing people even though he's been told how dangerous this is.

Why does this sound familiar?
Oh, right.

Anyway, the space hippies are annoying as hell and their drum circle sucks. Wow does it suck. Damn. 1969 in LA and they couldn't find better hippies? I mean, they could have paid them in pot and let them wear their own clothes. Instead they clearly let some 50 year-old dude who was a fan of the Monkees hire these assholes. "Yep, this is totally counter-culture. Them kids will totally boogy to this."

Also, Spock jamming with the hippies is physical painful to watch.

And could they possibly have been any more heavy-handed with the whole "the planet is made of acid!" thing? Burny acid, not trippy acid. Worst trip ever.

Apparently this episode didn't suck so much in the first draft. One of the hippies was supposed to be McCoy's daughter and Kirk was supposed to be all "mmmm, space hippy." And, obviously, McCoy was going to be all "you're gonna be dead, Jim." The original writer, the awesome DC Fontana asked they change her credit to an entirely different name, in fact, because she thought it sucked so hard.

I would have cut a bitch

Zeus got all butthurt or something and we had a lightning strike near our apartment Saturday night. I actually had no idea about this, but our cable modem died, probably via the co-ax cable. Some guy in a nearby building had all his shit fried.

Tech couldn't get here until just a few minutes ago to bring us a new one. OMG no internet! We had to go buy DVDs so we could watch TV.
Actually, the upside to that is that I finally got all the original Star Trek movies on DVD as I found them for a reasonable sum.

Anyway, that was serious withdrawal. Smartphone is just not the same. Any longer and I'd have tried camping out by free wireless somewhere.

Significant Research

Jane Austen, Watercolour and pencil portrait by her sister Cassandra, 1810 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There's an invisible mummy in the background. Therefore, research!

I've been working very, very hard on course development. By watching Father Ted. Totally religious. Yes. Totally. Waaaaay connected to Egyptian religion and magic (in that there is religion and they are both set mostly on the same planet). It is absolutely, delightfully insane and hilarious, especially if you were raised Catholic. And it's on Netflix.

I've also found a beautiful Irish folk song that reminds me of my Nana and puts me in mind of how her parents and family must have felt when they emigrated. It's called A Stor Mo Chroi ("treasure of my heart")
This verse especially:

A Stór Mo Chroí, in the stranger's land
There is plenty of wealth and wailing.
Whilst gems adorn the great and the grand
There are faces with hunger pailing.
Though the road is toilsome, and hard to tread
And the lights of their cities will blind you.
Won't you turn a stór to Erin's shore
And the ones that you're leaving behind you.

I particularly like Amelia Hogan's rendition if you can find it.

And, um, re-reading Pride and Prejudice and a modern "sequel" (no, not the one with zombies). I was entirely uninterested in Jane Austen until a few years ago and now I'm all "oooooohhhhhh, get outta my way, I'm making Regency costumes..." It's at least around the same time the Rosetta Stone was found...
I've only managed Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility so far. Weirdly, I found it much easier to read and follow P&P on my Kindle than it had been in print. I'm guessing my print books had tiny characters in a weird font, maybe. Anyway, yet more reason to love my Kindle. Now if I can only learn to read and knit at the same time or convince myself to try audiobooks...

And in the process of writing this post, I have discovered a P&P sequel with an Egyptological twist - Pride and Pyramids (linkage below).

Related articles

• Pride and Pyramids Blog Tour with Authors Amanda Grange & Jacqueline Webb & Giveaway

  ---

I'm not dead, just lazy

I've gone almost a full month without posting. Shame on me!
Part of my absence has been due to uncertainty. I'm teaching now and so I'm trying not to say anything too obvious about what and who and where and such. Really, I should probably quit being quite so paranoid.

Anyway, I was supposed to teach over the summer term but enrollment for that class was insufficient. I'm working on a fall course on Egyptian religion and magic. Ironically, that's an area where I don't have a hell of a lot of direct experience. To be honest, though, Egyptian religion and magic is more or less reconstructed indirectly.

If you're doing quizzical head-tilts now, let me attempt to explain:

Egyptian religion, like a hell of a lot of religions, didn't really have divine, revelatory texts. By which I mean, there isn't something like a Bible or Koran from ancient Egypt (or a hell of a lot of other places either). There is no tradition of a deity or his supernatural spokes-ghost dictating to a human who wrote everything down and then a bunch of people tried to interpret it and wow has that been a mess for a long time.
So, there is no handy-dandy Book of Genesis equivalent from ancient Egypt to explain how the world was created (in multiple, sometimes contradictory versions).
Nor did anyone sit down and collect the various myths and stories etc like Hesiod did for Greco-Roman mythology.

Instead we have lots and lots of art work, things like the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead that give us bits and pieces of information that we then try to make sense of. I suspect this is going to be difficult for some people to grasp, but hopefully I will get them there in the end.

In other news, the climate (or something) is making me retain water to a ridiculous degree. My hands and feet puff up and it's just unpleasant. I pushed way too much doing stuff a few weeks ago and am still paying for it in fatigue and general blehs.

Oreo is still enjoying being able to wander around a little on walks, but he is not so fond of the heat and humidity and allergies. The weather here has been waaaay more reasonable than in Chicago, though, plus we have central air conditioning. Yay!