Thank God it Wasn't One of Those Goofy Egyptians!

Freya
Indeed, you are 75% erudite, 70% sensual, 50% martial, and 70% saturnine.

Freya, twin sister of Frey, is a member of the Vanir family, the Norse clan of Fertility Gods. Like her counterparts, Aphrodite, Isis, Venus, and Ishtar (Greek, Egyptian, Roman and Indian mythology), she concerned herself with sex and all that goes with it.

She was quite fond of cats, by the way. In fact, she was said to travel about in a magnificent chariot drawn by her two regal black cats named Bygul and Trjegul (Pronunciation? You're on your own...) that were rumoured to be possessed. After serving Freya for 7 years, the cats were rewarded by being turned into witches, disguised as black cats. Even many of her personal traits seem cat-like. For instance, she always wore a brilliant jewel studded collar symbolizing her authority over the fiery aspect of sexuality.

Besides being the Goddess of love, cats, the moon, magic, and of course sex, Freya was also skilled in a form of magic called "seithr" (meaning "sayer" or "seer") which consisted of putting oneself into a deep meditative trance so that the secrets of the future might be revealed. She also owned a feather coat which she could use to fly between the worlds.

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You scored higher than 31% on erudite

You scored higher than 24% on sensual





You scored higher than 34% on martial







You scored higher than 69% on saturnine

Link: The Mythological Goddess Test written by Nitsuki on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Interesting Happenings

1) I have somehow acquired a cat. It's a long-haired, smush-faced spotted thing I have been calling "Beast." I consider it below both my and his/her/its dignity to go routing around in all that fur to find sex "markers," and so Beast will live without all the irritating socially determined expectations of gender that are so hard on a cat. When Beast first began sleeping on my porch a few weeks ago, I was very excited about the implications of a volunteer cat. Alas, no magical powers have emerged in either of us. Therefore, I must conclude that this cat could somehow sense the presence of a spinster in my college-kid infused microburg (i.e., town that thinks it's a city), and knew s/he must go live with said spinster to fulfill both of our stereotypes.
2) The local news that usually isn't is predicting snow for Tuesday. This Tuesday. The one before Halloween. W.T.F.? Seriously? A white Halloween? Those originally from this area tell me that I should expect a "wicked-harsh winter." I blame the GOP. In related news: I have discovered that L.L. Bean sells some delightfully colorful parkas.
3) People keep volunteering gossip about my professors' personal lives. Knowledge that this information freaks me out has, in fact, speeded up the flow of gossip. Some of it coming from the professors themselves. (Does this count as gossip, or just creepy perv talk?) Now, I know this is a childish philosophy, and will present a few problems in the next 5 years, but I really don't want to know about the sexual perversions of people with advanced degrees. Especially not when I trust those people to teach me stuff. And, not coincidentally, especially not when those advanced-degree holding people-who-teach-me-stuff types are an average of 112 years old. (Obviously hyperbolic, but the faculty here at Microburg U. is elderly by any standard.) Just ...ew! Stupid Viagra! I want my sweet, avuncular old men back, dammit!
4) The professor for whom I work has turned the female population of the class against him, and is approximately 12 hours and one idiotic aside away from full-scale riot. He's a tried and true member of the old-boys network, and doesn't understand that the jokes that were funny to his all-male cohort at Old Ivy when he was a student MANY MANY MOONS AGO are not so funny in a mixed classroom in the 21st century. If I were a good employee, I would have told him that on Friday. However, I suck. And, frankly, I'm enjoying watching the girls take up their battle-formations.

Political Leanings

An idea stolen from Ancrene Wiseass....

You are a Social Liberal (81% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (8% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist OK Cupid Politics Test My "Law Enforceable Forever by Goons" was: "I would dictate that...people who are born to wealthy families should have to perform a set number of community service hours per million dollars of their inheritance (i.e., unearned money). Something in the range of 300 hrs/Million should do the trick."

What I've Learned From Three Weeks of Grad School

1) It is actually possible to have enough books! (Imagine my surprise when, sitting in the local bookstore/cafe I discovered that --for the very first time in my life--I didn't have a compulsive need to bankrupt myself with book purchases.)
2) On a related note, professors are clearly not screwing around anymore.
3) Gregory of Tours was a gossipy old bitch(with cause).
4) I curse a lot more frequently and fluently than the average grad student.
5) University students will try to weasel information about upcoming tests from the female TAs first. ( It doesn't work.)
6) I'm drowning in a sea of papers, and I want my mommy!

Just for Fun.

You're Ireland!

Mystical and rain-soaked, you remain mysterious to many people, and this
makes you intriguing. You also like a good night at the pub, though many are just as
worried that you will blow up the pub as drink your beverage of choice. You're good
with words, remarkably lucky, and know and enjoy at least fifteen ways of eating a potato.
You really don't like snakes.
Take the Country Quiz at
the Blue Pyramid

Whom Would Jesus Persecute?

** Brought to my attention at Bitch PhD, and also commented upon on by The Un-Apologetic Atheist. (If I have transgressed against established blogiquette by linking to their sites without permission, I apologize.)

The New York Times reported today that the Vatican will be sending the thought police to American Seminaries, to rout for homosexuals and/or dissenters. Not necessarily practicing homosexuals and dissenters, just people who seem like they might be thinking about either sleeping with men or thinking for themselves. So the Catholic church is looking for heretics. Again. Because that's always worked so very well for them in the past. The impetus behind this Vatican decision is the belief that rampant homosexuality and liberalism in the seminaries was at fault for the child-molesters and their defenders in the American Catholic church. Nevermind that science has established that pedophilia and homosexuality are as distinct from each other as pedophilia and heterosexuality. Nevermind that no Catholic priest is meant to have sex with ANYBODY, EVER. Nevermind that priests -- whether pedophiles or not -- have been more likely to interact with boys than girls. Eighty percent of the victims were boys, so it must be the fault of the homosexuals and liberals. First it was the fault of the women's movement, then the sexual revolution, and now it's gay men. Crazy, isn't it, how it wasn't ever the fault of the Bishops and Cardinals who paid off and silenced the families of victims, and sent the criminal priests to new parishes without notifying said new parishes of the danger in their midst? Crazy,too, that notifying the civil authorities of sexual assaults against children was an idea that never came up. And, even when the scandal was out, the cardinals wanted to protect "their spiritual sons"?

But, hey, when there are heretics and homosexuals to expunge, stakes to erect, and fires to light, one doesn't have time for self-reflection.

Don't Let the Bible Thump You Upside the Head on the Way Out.

While I was focused on the damage caused by Katrina and the completely backwards way in which the government "handled" the situation, some interesting news passed me by. It seems there is a group from California calling themselves "Christian Exodus," who are planning to move to South Carolina in great enough numbers (they hope) to turn the state into one which supports theocracy, and/or to force South Carolina's secession from the union. Although I was startled to learn that there are wingnuts even wingnuttier than those I've encountered, I have to agree with these particular wingnuts. It would make everyone's lives significantly better if those who choose to live in a Christian theocracy would just move to one place, and have their theocracy. It didn't work the first time a theocracy was established on this land, and they'll probably return soon enough, but in the meantime we could let the kids get it out of their system without taking away MY human rights to satisfy their religious convictions. Do, by all means, go. And hurry up about it.

I've also been in a rage that the states that pay for the federal government are financially supporting the "people of the middle." You remember those, right? The ones who blather on and on about self-control, responsibility, the horrible 'welfare queens' who should never have had sex in the first place, and now expect THEIR tax dollars to pay for the children? It's not relevant to them that THEIR TAX DOLLARS don't even pay for their own expenditures, they want to be absolutely certain that mine don't go to help poor people. Helping the poor cuts into their welfare checks, you see. And if the poor just happen to be women, children, and the elderly (i.e., those perceived as too weak to defend themselves from attack), then that's even more reason not to help them. Maybe they should go, too. It'll give them an opportunity to live by their own philosophies for a time. They can, for once, really be as self-sufficient as they claim. My part of the country will still welcome the tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free. God knows we'll be able to afford to help them once we get rid of the "rugged individualists" who've been bleeding us dry for centuries.