Blog has moved!

As of July 2009 I have switched over to WordPress. Check it out!

May be switching to WordPress - Let me know what you think

Due to ongoing problems with my comments, and a few other more narcissism-related issues, I may be moving from Blogger to Wordpress. Could you take a second and go to the new shenpa warrior blog on WordPress? Click here.

Let me know what you think (you can leave a comment here or there). If we all like the new blog better, I will try to move the url for this blog to that one, so hopefully no one will need to update their links.

Thanks in advance, and thank you for the help in the previous post.

going through some blog changes - please leave a comment to see if everything is working

More than a few people have complained about the difficulty they have had commenting on my blog. One of my best friends even got so frustrated with it he said "I TRULY, TRULY, HATE this blog." Yes, we're still friends of course, but something had to change. I'm not much of a computer genius, but I thought if I completely scrapped the old template with all my inept hacks... perhaps it will start working better now.

On that note, please leave a comment (especially if you have had ANY trouble in the past commenting here - let me know what the trouble has been). Thanks in advance! If I don't get any comments, I'll know that there are still some bugs.

A few thoughts on movies

I saw Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince last night.

I was hoping there would be all kinds of witches and whatnot at the theater, but apparently that's all for the midnight showing the day before.

A few thoughts:

1. WHO brings their babies to movies? Seriously. If they're still in the womb, fine, but otherwise, PLEASE find a time and a movie that no one else is at.
2. For those who love to talk THE ENTIRE TIME, please find the parents of #1 and go to movies with them. We had some wonderful teenage boys next to us, who DID NOT STOP talking. And then at the end, one of them said "that movie was stupid!" Really. You know what YOU'RE STUPID! Okay that was harsh, but at least I didn't curse him. (That's a really good link, by the way.)
   
3. How in the world did this movie get a PG rating? While it may not have been as intense as The Dark Knight or Pirates of the Caribbean, for example (which both should have been rated R - yeah, I re-rate our dvds, lol. Conspiracy Theory is now PG-13 if you want to watch it at my house), it wasn't PG worthy either. As usual, kids-in-mind helps out a lot more. The Incredibles, and UP were also rated PG...
4. Despite all that, the movie was really good I thought. More humor and lighter scenes than usual, and the actors seem to be getting better with each movie. Keep in mind this movie is setting up the last two, so just like the rest of the movies it doesn't really feel complete.
   

The Unfortunate Truth

Most husbands need to step up to the plate.

For those who do, marital happiness stays, or actually increases if the couple has children. About 2/3 don't, however. They end up in relationships where the man works 8-10 hours a day, and the woman works 16 or more. Naturally, those wives (the 2/3 of married women) are not as happy--they experience a significant drop in marital satisfaction with the arrival of a new baby.

Even when both partners work, the woman usually does more housework, and more of the less desirable chores.

A few years ago Nat and I figured out (with some bad math) that she was doing 55% and I was doing 45% (this includes chores, work, and school). Naturally, we were both surprised at how low our percentages were. The only thing I'm sure of is focusing on 50-50 is not a good idea. Both partners need to be striving to help the relationship and each other.

How is the balance in your relationship? Are you focused on doing your share, or do you focus more on what you are doing and less on your partner?

Roundup: Canadian Healthcare, Gov. Sanford, & Excommunication

• Steve at The Zombie Chronicles once again reminds us why Obama's plan for health care will not be, for lack of a better word, socialist.
  He also lists a succinct dispelling of the myths about Canadian healthcare. For example, most Canadian doctors do not work for the government, and there are no waits for urgent or primary care. Granted, no system is perfect, but I agree with Steve--we need a major change, and the fear mongering gets us nowhere.


• Apparently some friends of Beliefnet's Steven Waldman feel that because Governor Sanford was in love with his mistress, he deserves more sympathy. Really? I think that fact makes his affair a LOT worse--affairs are WAY more damaging when love is involved.

• On Gay LDS Actor, an openly gay and believing Mormon writes about his recent excommunication from the church, as well as his experiences as he continues to attend the meetings and engage in the faith. It is profound, despite your religious (or lack of) persuasion.