I'm not a piercing fan. Some of it looks nice but some looks too far gone. I've seen stretched ears where the flap of skin is dry and pulled tight. It turns my stomach. The little bit of ear skin left at the edge looks like thin leather about to snap. I can't deal with people who have this - my focus is on their ear rather than what they are trying to tell me. I'm not against body modification, I just don't want to see it when it looks painful or like it's about to require stitches/ surgery to fix it.

Ear stretching seems to be pretty popular. I'm just waiting for it to go to neck stretching next, where they wear more and more metal rings around their throat. I'm sure it will bring back Japanese foot binding too. Someone will need to find a new extreme.

I don't have a link for this. It was posted as a web course which is now gone.

Russian Culture By Lindsay Kosarev

Introduction

Russia is not something you understand with your mind. To have any understanding of the logic or culture of Russia, you need to feel her soul, her history, and her people.

Living the Russian Way is designed to give the student a glimpse at a completely different life perspective and way of thinking. I am not focused on historical or political debates, as many Russians are not. Part of Russian thinking is that these things cannot really be answered. Plus, it is better to make such discussions in the privacy of your home with a couple of good friends and a bottle of something intoxicating.

In other culture classes there is a focus in polite and “cultural” Russian culture, but this not such a course. I will not be talking about the Bolshoi Theater or traditional singing, but rather real people and living culture. This course will be challenging, not necessarily in the material, but it will challenge your perceptions about life. This challenge is the point behind cultural adaption. It will be challenging because you will begin to enter into and try to feel out the elusive and mysterious Russian soul. …more

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, it's a special day for me. Kind of my own Remembrance Day, for my family. I was thinking today about all the old cleaning methods women have used in the past. I can remember my Grandma talking about using the old wringer washing machine. Not automated at all. I remember my Grandpa using the old lawn mower, the kind you really have to push around to get the blades turning. How did those old folks manage? I tried pushing around that old fashioned mower and I could barely get it to budge when I was a young sprite of ten.

The funny thing is that I tend to think of my Grandparents as being old, that's the only way I knew them. In fact, they would have been young 20 year olds, hanging laundry out on the clothesline. New Mothers washing cloth diapers, ironing shirts and cooking dinner. In turn, there would have been young Dads fixing the car and then taking the kids out to the park while Mom stayed home to wax the floors.

It seems the biggest changes we have from our modern electric machines are the saving of time. I don't know how long it would have taken to wash all the clothes by hand and wring them through. Grandma told me about catching her hands in the wringer and boiling them in the hot soapy water. Not that she was a complainer. She just wanted me to understand how things were. How else could anyone know what the experience was like? I'm not tempted to try it personally. It's so much easier to turn on a machine and leave it to do the work. So convenient too. I've got laundry in the machine right now.

But, I don't forget Grandma, Grandpa and all their brother's and sister's who make up my family. On St. Patrick's Day I remember them all. We're an Irish and Austrian blend (mainly) so I picked this one day for them. To think of their struggles, their jokes and everything else they've left me.

In the old days, say the Regency period of English history, there was a custom of being "not at home". They had fancy door knockers then. If people were not at home (even when they were physically present) they removed the door knocker. That way, anyone who thought to call or visit would see they were "not at home" to callers. It was perfectly acceptable, no lack of manners or politeness.

Why is everyone so eager to be at home for all callers these days? Are we that desperate for company, do we really always have to be available? Can't we have a day and just be not at home?

Personally, I don't own a cell phone and I'm not likely to get one. I don't have my email set to notify me when new email is on the server. I don't always answer the phone. This morning someone is at the door, ringing the bell and guess what... I'm not running down to answer it. I'm not at home.

Instead I'm sitting here in my nightgown, my legs are not shaved, my teeth are not brushed but my hair is freshly brushed. I am making time for myself. Later I will go out and then really, physically, not be at home. Right now I'm just taking the knocker off the door. Anyone who calls can leave their calling card. That's another aspect of the old fashioned not at home custom. People had calling cards made to show they had visited/ come calling.

Being not at home is such an elegant custom. Why on Earth did we drop it?