Goodness. One of the reasons I was going to start reposting things I’ve written for work was to keep blogging more, wasn’t it? And yet here I am, over two months since the last blog post. But I have excuses! Over the last two months I have been doing some combination of the following to keep me from blogging:

• Meeting my new nephew
• Traveling to New York City
• Being a bridesmaid in a steampunk wedding
• Working on the Side Project™
• Overindulging on McDonald’s Happy Meals (seriously, within a week of the last blog post, they started offering My Little Pony toys)
• Trying to drop down my search engine rank for the phrase “My Little Pony Porn” (crap, it just went up again)
• Inching ever closer to death (aka turning 30)
• Replaying Kingdom Hearts

…which leads to a tolerable transition to the meat of this post. A year ago the marketing team decided we wanted to write an article about video games for our monthly e-magazine. As the gamer in our small team, I wanted to make sure that gaming was presented fairly. This then led to not just one article, but three rather hefty ones dealing in-depth with the risks and rewards. In general, I think I left the articles in an empowering place for parents – it’s about judging each title individually, not just being all like, “Video Games Are Teh Evil!”

And with that said, it’s time for me to post the links to these articles. After all, Donald and Goofy are waiting for me so we can go rid Hollow Bastion of the Heartless.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 

personal, society video games, work

So I’ve mentioned that I’m doing a lot of writing at work and that maybe I should use that writing to, like, do something with my own personal blog. I also have a couple of for-realsies blog posts simmering, so, hey, building momentum.

One of the coolest things about where I work is the mission. We’re talking truly life-transforming and belief-shaping. Pornography is the easiest example. Before I started at my job, I found it morally objectionable but was personally ambivalent for non-Christians. (This is my default stance on many issues: I may find a behavior objectionable, but I’m not going to force someone who doesn’t share the basic tenants of my faith to live under my moral code.) Now, almost two years later, my opinions on porn are much more closely aligned with my opinions on drugs. In short: “NOOO DON’T DO IT YOU’RE RUINING YOUR BRAIN YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO HAVE A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP STOP WATCHING IT NAOW!” Seriously. There’s a ton of science behind why it’s just about one of the worst things you can do to yourself sexually. Read more…

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First off, a statement: I have never not been single for Valentine’s Day. Ever. Unless something magical happens in the next 24 hours and 19 minutes, this year is not going to be the exception. And usually I experience some level of depression (Yup, still single), anger (I wish singles would stop ranting about how much it sucks), and glum acceptance (At least there’s cheap candy tomorrow).

I can’t control the holiday’s existence – no matter how much people rant about how commercial it is, it’s not going away. However, I can control my attitude. So the last two years, I’ve been trying to shift myself mentally back into celebrating the holiday for what it’s supposed to be: a celebration of romantic love.

Therefore, I’ve come up with a few ways that singles can celebrate the holiday productively. Holidays shouldn’t be about pity-parties, after all.

1. Make a treat.

Like cookies! Who doesn’t like cookies? The cookies in the photo are my mother’s special mint cookies; they’re a pain to make, but worth it once a year. Tomorrow, I’m bringing them into work. It’s not much, but it makes the day a bit more special for everyone.

2. Throw a party.

No, not a pity party. Round up all the other singles you know and hang out. Eat lots of chocolate, play MASH, and find solidarity. I’m neither throwing nor attending such a party this year, but I know I’ve increasingly been amazed at how not alone in singleness I am. It’s one of the easiest traps to fall into – you attend *another* friend’s wedding and you think, that’ll be everybody else in the world but me. Honestly, though, if you’re ever the only single person you know, you probably need to make more friends. The more I’ve looked around and seen all the singles around me, the more at peace I’ve become with my own perpetual singleness.

3. Treat a married couple.

No, I’m not doing this one either, but only because I didn’t think of it until it’s too late. Here’s the thing: Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a celebration of love. But marriage is really freakin’ hard. So look around you and find an older couple that’s been married for a long time. Preferably, find one of those sweet little old person-type couples who have been married for 50 years or so. Really, the idea is that they are a couple whose marriage has withstood the test of time and is a positive example of what love actually means. Chances are, they weren’t planning on doing anything for Valentine’s day anyway. Buy them flowers and a gift certificate to a local restaurant, and be sure to say that you’re celebrating their love for each other.

Alternately, you could also treat a younger couple out to eat, or possibly babysit for them for free while they date. Will this give you an opening for bitterness? Perhaps. But remember, marriage is tough, and in a lot of ways your freedom as a single is better than their marriage.

Which brings me to my last point:

4. Remind yourself of how awesome it is to be single.

There are a couple of ways you can do this. You might want to read a book about it, for example. Or pick up and do something that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to do if you were seeing someone, like experimenting with a weird food or planning out a mostly spontaneous roadtrip for next weekend. Relationships tie you down, so use Valentine’s Day as a reminder not to waste your freedom.

Those are just a few ideas I had floating around in my head. Any other suggestions?

personal, singleness social commentary

…this happens.

Source image from NASA.

fun, image dump, shenanigans humor, photodump, photoshop

…for the Covenant Eyes blog. For anyone wondering, this blog post subtly summarizes 2011 for me.

I’ve actually done quite a bit of writing over the last year, mostly for work. Since this website was at one point supposed to be a portfolio, I figure I’ll cross-post some of the pieces I’ve written for anyone who’s interested.

So! Since it went live on Monday, here are my thoughts on singleness via my workplace.

4 Reasons Accountability is Critical for Singles

“It is not good for man to be alone.”

If you’re at all familiar with this verse, you’re probably used to hearing it in the context of marriage. Perhaps you’ve heard it in a sermon or during a wedding ceremony.

And if you’re living in prolonged singleness, perhaps every time you hear it, you feel somewhat less-than-sufficient for not having somebody. Or maybe the opposite is true, and you have a sense of smug superiority, and you think to yourself, “Relationships are for other people. Me? I can do it all on my own.”

But this verse is about more than marriage. Nobody, not even those who choose singleness, is ever called to do life alone. Jesus always sent the disciples out in pairs, and Paul always traveled with companions. Or consider James 5:16, which says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”

In reality, we singles need to stick together. Those of us who live alone are especially vulnerable to temptation simply because there’s nobody there to walk in on us. So whether our temptations are to watch pornography or to waste our lives on TV or video games or to wallow in bitterness over our lack of relationships, accountability is critical for us to continue growing in Christ.

Read the rest…

personal, religion, singleness, site christianity, linkedin, personal stories, religion, weight, work, writing

This is my local grocery store. More to the point, this is the construction blocking my usual parking spot at my local grocery store.

I was…less than thrilled when I saw this, mostly because this work required a change in the flow of traffic, and also because there was no advanced warning. Most construction areas have some sort of sign, advertising the future site of some building or other. Nothing here, though, just signs telling you that all of a sudden the drive is one-way, and lots of fences and confusion. All this on a busy Sunday afternoon when the students are back in town. Needless to say, it was not the most enjoyable shopping trip I’ve ever had.

A friend called just after I finished unloading groceries. She’d had a bad week and, understandably, needed to decompress. (Among other, more personal things, she was forced to switch offices because hers had black mold.) And she asked me how a rather large personal project was going. (The answer? Stressful.)

And after she hung up the phone, I thought about the grocery shopping experience in conjunction with my friend’s and my stress, and thought: “Construction is irritating and inconvenient. But this means improvement follows. Sometimes the outcome is visible; sometimes it’s not. But it often means good things are coming.” Read more…

personal, religion health, linkedin, personal stories, weight

So. First blog post in over a year. Better make it a good one, eh?

One of my workplace’s traditions is a Christmas decorating contest. We’re encouraged to go all out on decorations, and one day at lunch the executive team will wander through the office, freely accepting bribes. The winners receive things like free bagels for the department.

Here’s the thing about our Marketing department. We are a busy, jaded bunch who manage to squeeze in more stuff than we can probably technically handle. We’ve had a surprising number of bonding experiences and enjoy each other a lot, but we also don’t really know how to justify “fun” (e.g. “decorating”) when we really have about 20 things to do within the next 5 hours. Last year we pulled together a last-second haphazard Star Wars Christmas theme (complete with a tree topped with a cutout of the Death Star), but our judges being the wrong kind of nerds, we (deservedly) did not even remotely place. Last year’s winners were our Customer Service Representatives (they completely wrapped their desks or something); our User Experience department for creating an interactive event focused on the execs’ experience; and the Developers, for going with a “We’re Developers” theme and doing things like a Christmas tree made out of Mountain Dew cans.

So how would a marketing department compete with that? Read more…

fun, shenanigans humor, personal stories, work

Context, first: I work for Covenant Eyes in the marketing department. Our big product, for the unaware, is accountability software…basically, once a week, a self-selected accountability partner gets an e-mail with a report on your Internet activity. Originally, this was about calling out pornography, but we’ve been pushing to expand it to Internet dangers in general (i.e. bad use of time, bad interactions online, and bad content). The main goal of this is that you and your partner are supposed to talk about what you’ve been doing online. This is particularly useful for parents, especially of older kids, since it means that the kids can go and do their thing online but the parent can monitor it and engage in discussions about it.

So this post by danah boyd popped up in my RSS feed. Go read it – it’s short – but the gist is that a girl who is forbidden from using Facebook by her parents but uses it anyway has a therapist who (a) lets her use Facebook at her office and (b) actually talks about what she’s doing online. Read more…

society linkedin, social commentary, work

Should I apologize for my utter failure to update this blog? I should probably apologize. The truth is, since I spend all day writing for websites, I have little desire to continue doing so in my free time.

In fact, the main reason I finally broke down to write this post is because it’s 4:00 AM, I have the kind of insomnia that’s curable only by sleeping aids or by solving my problems, and I don’t have my work laptop here to work on the new website.

(“Problem solving” insomnia is my most frequent form. I’ll wake up after 3-4 hours with a problem cycling through my head and be unable to sleep until it is solved. Given that we launch our new website on Monday, I don’t expect to sleep much between then and now.)

So: blogging. Read more…

personal memories, personal stories

I should probably mention that even though the Last Rose was dead, there were new buds already growing. I failed to get a picture, but I think there were four. So already the Last Rose was actually the first, though I persisted in the misnomer.

The Last Rose faded to oblivion on a Wednesday. On Thursday, I read Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye? while waiting for the technician to arrive. On Sunday my car died. Long story short, but I did not like the dealer where I took it, so I only had them fix one of the two things that went seriously wrong with it. (It since died again and I got the real problem fixed…another saga for another day, perhaps.)

These things are not why it took me so long to write this post. Read more…

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