Helpful things

There's a DW equivalent of that annual Valentine community there used to be on LJ. It's not too late to send a message! They're pretty unpicky, you can have signed or anon messages, you can message your one true love or multiple sweeties or everyone you care about.

Me, I spent the weekend with my lovely fiancé, not trying to do anything dramatic, just having some time together uninterrupted by the usual stack of social commitments I end up with when I'm in Cambridge. Lunch at a cute country pub, the King William IV out towards Royston; it's a bit over the top with its ye olde decor, and the food is pleasant but not amazing – they do, as advertised, have a substantial vegetarian selection, though. That allowed us to enjoy the weekend's one small patch of sunshine and walk in the countryside a bit.

jenett has a fantastic discussion of dressing for formal but not specifically business contexts. What I like about it is that it's practical rather than ideological; there are so many guides for how to dress for an interview which basically boil down to, if you're female you're in the wrong. Jenett talks about how clothing actually works, and doesn't assume that everyone should (or can) spend endless time and money on outfits and grooming. Most importantly she doesn't assume that you have to be thin, white, beautiful and acceptably feminine to be worth anything at all, which is a breath of fresh air. Some of her advice is US-specific, but a lot of the general principles are much more broadly applicable.

siderea pointed me to a really great article about women and anaemia. Take-home message: anaemia in women is just as likely as anaemia in men to be caused by upper GI tract bleeding, and shouldn't be assumed to be a natural consequence of menstruation. It's one of those articles where it's simultaneously frustrating that the medical establishment so completely failed to question their assumptions, and fantastic that someone went and tested stuff systematically and found empirical data rather than relying on (inconveniently sexist) common sense. Also, it's an example of why anthropology is really useful and important in the real world!

Somewhat related: kaberett made notes on treatments attempted for endometriosis, which may be useful for others with the same condition.

Countdown meme: day 9

Day 9 is Two images that describe your life right now. I find this tough, since I really don't have a visual mind! I poked around in Flickr and came up with the following two:

( thumbnails link to larger images on Flickr )

Aren't you glad I didn't choose any soppy images? Cos the other big thing that's going on in my life right now is planning both the wedding and more seriously, our future together. As an antidote to all that nonsense, have some anti-valentines.