Podfic Interface Device Acquired!

[sasha_feather]

I am liveblogging my experience with my new Podfic interface device, more commonly known as an MP3 player. I'm feeling peakish today, and this is a nice activity that involves little movement.

I went with wyoluvr's rec and bought a blue Sansa clip. Sansa! Like the character in Song of Ice and Fire! Too bad she's so annoying, because it's a cool name. Also, possibly she will get less annoying in later books?

It is SO CUTE, you guys. Very, very small. I'm not quite so sure why the smallness is desirable; it should come with a magnifying glass. I can imagine that people with hand difficulties or large fingers have trouble with the controls on these.

While it charges via my laptop, I'm downloading fic, mostly via thingswithwings' rec posts. Many tabs are open. I'm going to have to make a new folder! Just like I did with vids! I'm reaching new levels of fannish involvement, and it is exciting.

OH I ALSO BOUGHT THE FIFTH SEASON OF SGA. I'm not quite sure if that merits a /o\ or a \o/.

And I filled out an application for an apartment-- one directly across the hall from some friends of mine (antarcticlust and JackShoeGazer). And had a walk & lunch with jesse_the_k. What a productive day!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. **Prudes beware**

At a fannish gathering last night, we got to talking about, "Did your parents ever give you the sex talk?" For some reason, mine never did, at least not that I can recall. Which is a bit odd: my mom's a nurse and I grew up on a farm. The facts of life were clear from a young age, what with all the animal husbandry and lambing season etc, and I'm pretty sure my parents knew I was not having sex in high school. So maybe that's why. But I wonder if my brothers got The Talk and I didn't, you know?

The others reported that their experiences were at turns awkward, negative, terse, straightforward, or were given too late.

So, friends list, what about you? I'm curious.

Comments

[thingswithwings]

my sex talk with my dad went like this: we were in the den, and he was handing me SF&Fantasy books to read, and he was like, "Okay, read this one, and read this one, and read this one - " *pause* " - hey, you know about sex and all that, right?" Me: "Yup." Him: "Okay, then you can read this one, and this one, and this one too." Me: "Kay."

I swear to god. Later on I had shame about bleeding from my vagina, but that was because a) I was a girl in North America and b) no one ever talked about sex or genitals in my house, and everyone found it painful to acknowledge the very potential of such things. But I do think the book-recs-sex-talk was pretty funny.

[sasha_feather]

That is an amazing story!

I assume you mean regular bleeding from your vagina, OK yes; for some reason I was thinking of that in other contexts there for a minute. (Merp-mer.) I think that kind of talk was eventually OK with my mom because I could always frame it within biology or agriculture, like, why don't farm animals go through menopause? Why don't farm animals get periods? Why don't people go into heat? (I still wonder about these things.) But yes, girl in North America, me too-- in a class I took in college called "Coming of Age: Gender and Culture" (Women's Studies), they had us tell our stories about our first period. And that was fascinating to think about, culturally!

[wrdnrd]

This is one of those very few things my mother got really, really right when i was growing up. (And, i swear, having heard so many other sex talk stories, Mom's about the only parent in America who HAS gotten it right.) But, so far as i can remember 30 years later, the sex talk i got was perfectly normally and not especially weird. I was either in late 3rd or early 4th grade (so around 9-ish) when Mom sat me down on the couch and explained it all -- used the proper words, too: penis, vagina, intercourse, ejaculation, ovulation. And i think at 1st we were both a little awkward, but eventually (a) her natural teaching gift, and (b) my natural curiosity took over and things were fine. I can remember being all like, "Ohhh, so THAT's how it works! I wondered!"

[sasha_feather]

Bravo to your mom!!

[wrdnrd]

ALSO! (I feel i should add this, to be fair to Mom, who's fucked up so much else.) Mom did remain pretty open about talking about sex and body things as i was growing up. I remember coming home after band camp right before my freshman year of high school and i just, bold as anything, said, "Mom, what in the WORLD is sixty-nine??" She cringed and said, "Lord, i thought all the sex questions were done already." And then she explained it, normal as can be. It was pretty funny, actually, and i remember we both laughed about it. Even now we can have fairly normal discussions about our bodies. I've been wondering about the possibility that my changing periods might indicate early menopause, so during one of her recent visits we talked about her perimenopause/menopause -- and, frankly, it's one of the ONLY perfectly normal conversations she and i have had lately.

She told me, when she was giving me the sex talk 30 years ago, that because Gma DIDN'T talk with Mom about sex or anything to do with bodies that she wasn't going to be that sort of a mother. Well done, Mom! :)

[sasha_feather]

That's great that you're being fair to your mom-- that can be hard!

Also it's interesting about the "because my mom DIDN'T do this, I will," versus, "this is the way it's always been done" kind of thing. Well, except we really do lack formalized traditions and coming-of-age ceremonies in our culture, I think. So "the way it's always been done" doesn't really hold up.

[toft]

I never had a talk with my parents, so far as I remember - they gave me detailed books with pictures from a young age. I had a book which explained everything in terms of machines where the red blood cells were soldiers and the germs were little green furry monsters, and I remember vividly what the sex picture looked like (a large accordian docking into some kind of strange scaffold) and it took me a very long time before I aligned that with my mother's description of sex as "like a cuddle" and worked out what was actually going on. I don't think that was until sex ed classes at school, which were very rigorous and thorough.

Although I think later I had a talk with my mum about contraception, but that was when I was about sixteen and it was more like, the merits of the pill vs. the diaphragm (her: "Well, me and your father used to use -" me: "OH GOD SHUT UP SHUT UP").

[sasha_feather]

Soldiers and furry monsters! I'm not sure whether I find that endearing or disturbing (medicine as warfare...) And the accordion and scaffold-- wow. I wonder if the author of that book was into fanfic AUs, is all I'm saying. Or fucking machines! :D

That's great that your school sex ed was thorough. My friend pointed out today, there's a whole generation here in the states that's been harmed by abstinence only ridiculousness!

[general_jinjur]

my mother drew diagrams on a 3x5 card for me when i was in 1st or 2nd grade, at the kitchen table (she had a lot of index cards around, as she was working on her phd (random mention as i am proud of my mom, and that she did that then, with two small kids and an ft job and all). and we had picturebooks with sensitive 1970s watercolors.

then before i had my first period she gave me a little book about periods (published by tampax or something), and a starter sampler pack of tampons and pads.

i feel like she tried? but i have to say i was pretty confused about a lot of the details for a really long time. my mother is the sort of person who asks questions; i am not. this is the reason it didn't work.

[sasha_feather]

Yay for your mom for trying, and for going after her PhD! :)

I'm really grateful for books about these things, because they allow people to kind of learn at their own pace. I'm also the not the sort of person to ask questions, at least not around personal things I'm embarrassed about-- thus I also was (and am) confused about some things.

[trouble]

The only sex talk I got directly from my mom was when I asked what those maxipad commercials were for. I think I was in third grade.

We had really comprehensive sex ed in school, though, and my mom went to all the parent-teacher things about that, so she may have decided she didn't need to go into too much detail.

On the other hand, we had a really open relationship about the whole period-thing when it was just her and I (my father worked out east for a while, and my brother was in uni). And I remember a long conversation between herself, myself, my aunt, and my cousin about what to do if we or someone we knew was raped. Sadly, it focused on stranger-rape, but hey! My mom talked about rape, and not on how "not to get raped", but on what to do if it happens.

[sasha_feather]

My mom talked about rape, and not on how "not to get raped", but on what to do if it happens.

That is excellent.

[handyhunter.livejournal.com]

I'm still waiting for the sex talk from my parents. Apparently my brother got one, though, around the time my parents found out about his second? GF; it consisted of, "Make sure you don't end up like [cousin who had a child at 16]." We had sex ed in school, too; maybe my parents thought that was sufficient.

And I remember this one time I made my dad horribly uncomfortable because I asked him what foreplay was in a rather public place. I think I'd heard or read the word somewhere and was curious (I was 11 or 12). He never did tell me, so I looked it up in the dictionary when we got home.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of a vivid memory of I have of reading So Far from the Bamboo Grove in elementary school, and asking my brother what "placenta" meant when I encountered the word in the book. He said, "EW!" and wouldn't tell me. Which is weird: we both knew, we'd seen it during lambing-- we'd just called it afterbirth, we just had a different name for it. But he wouldn't talk about it.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

Yah! Did you get to use my coupon?

You know, I never had a sex talk from my parents either - or even the period talk.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

I did get to use it! Yay!

I was glad that my school at least taught us something about periods, because my mom wasn't open about periods either.

[were-duck.livejournal.com]

My period talk happened the day I got it--the first person I told was my best friend, who was super excited for me and a little jealous that I got mine first. Then I got home and my mom was like, "welcome to the next thirty horrible years." Thanks mom!

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, geez. I like your friend's reaction, though!

[wyoluvr.livejournal.com]

the day i got my period, i told the nurse about it, got out of my last class, walked home (which was across the street at the time), told Mom, who then commanded my brother (age 21), who was home on leave, to take me to the store for pads. TRAUMA. the worst though was a year or so later, when my Mom decided to give me a "omg tampons are evil and don't wear them" talk, at the very front of the store, in front of hordes of small town shoppers.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

GEE, THANKS MA.

[wyoluvr.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY.

[wyoluvr.livejournal.com]

when i visit, we'll have to take a picture of our Sansas canoodling *g*.

to the best of my memory, i never got the sex talk. perhaps my parents decided to forgo that pleasure when the saw the number of explicit sex scenes in the romance novels that i read. then again, maybe my 70-something year old Dad just figured i wasn't having boys over so clearly it wasn't a problem ;)

[hello-momma.livejournal.com]

I have a Sansa Fuse, it's pretty decent, but when I plug it into my computer it cuts off my external USB wireless and I lose the internet and have to reboot my computer.

I didn't get the sex talk from my parents either. I'm sure it was pretty obvious that it wasn't necessary, because there were zero chances of me getting laid back then. She did sign my permission slip for the sex ed assembly at my middle school and once she pointed out that there was a box of condoms in her medicine cabinet and assured me that I could and should use them. I imagine her checking periodically and shaking her head in disappointment when she saw that none were missing. Wah wah waaaah

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

The "box of condoms in the medicine cabinent" is more of a sex talk than I got. But it's funny that parents don't say more on this subject generally.

[owlface1.livejournal.com]

no talk for me. I was telling a friend just the other day, i learned about sex mainly from medical encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks etc, and that has kinda of led me to a very 'clinical' and reproductive mindset toward sex.

also any comments about sex with my mother did make to me was in a language i can't even repeat here.(feel free to ask later if you want) she did finally say something to me about birth control, about a month after i moved in with my then future spouse.
My dad was totally quiet on the issue to the point that it may have been unhealthy for me.

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

That's interesting about medical textbooks! What about fiction or stories?

[owlface1.livejournal.com]

i keep trying to write a good response and they end up being way too long. the short(er) story is that I did get some exposure through fiction, but probably not a lot. the encyclopedia stuff happened, i'm guessing, when i was about 8-9. for a while they thought i was "slow" and i think that had an impact on age appropriate reading.( i ended up skipping a lot of the kids chapter books and went into adult books)
i read a lot of adult vampire/horror books and yeah, that did affect me a lot. what passed for my "goth phase' lasted about 7 yrs lol
then when i was a teenager my friend started giving me books that were about bisexuality etc. up till that point i kinda assumed that everyone was bisexual until they were old enough to become moms and dads and then it just faded away. and no one was telling me any of this mind you, it was just conclusions i came to. Oh! and talk shows! i watched them a lot during the summers and thats why i was poly for 15+yrs. Instead of saying "why did you?" they would always say "why didn't you tell me?!" so i decided everyone should *tell* things and not worry about the rest. I almost crapped my pants when i saw my first tranny on TV!!