Weekend Update!

That sounded way more exciting than it is. It's the weekend. My kids are around, and they're watching screens, as kids do when they're not being forced to do something else. The something else is coming, so they get some screen time this morning without me making a fuss. Choose your battles, etc. Also, it's hot out today and I don't feel I can, in good conscience, make them go outside until it cools off a bit this evening.

Went to see Ant Man Friday night, and I really enjoyed it -- far more than I thought I would. Paul Rudd was very good, mostly playing a straight man for Michael Douglas (who completely rocked, btw) and Evangeline Lilly (who also completely rocked). The plot was a bit disjointed at times -- no movie involving significant shape change "science" is going to be wholly on point -- but we got as much backstory as we needed, and a lot of focus on the personal relationships and stuff to keep the plot rolling. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plot gets integrated into the main Marvel Universe -- I'm intrigued and pleased at the idea of seeing Wasp get the respect she deserves. 

I just finished Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women. It was a slog -- I suspected it would be. It's simultaneously so remote from our present day experience and yet so applicable; it did not make for comfortable light reading. I would frequently have to put it down and move on to something else, as it would become too depressing in light of present day cultural struggles. I offers hope, though, and I can feel the passion she held and her courage in the face of risk, even through the centuries. I would have liked to have met her. There is, in particular, a phrase from the introduction that I find speaks to me:

"I shall not waste my time in rounding periods, or in fabricating the turgid bombast of artificial feelings, which, coming from the head, never reach the heart. -- I shall be employed about things, not words!"

I too in my dissertation shall be employed with things, though I cannot say I will not be employed about words, but rather the intersection between the two. I'm going to print this out and put it above my desk, so I can see the passion of it at times when I can't feel it at all. Hopefully this will see me through the times ahead. :)